Fidesz

"I am not here to excuse my grandfather, nor would I like to ponder how someone becomes a murderer," Pokorni said at a solemn ceremony in mid-January at the site of a former Jewish hospital in Budapest.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says he is seeking allies for a conservative "counter-revolution" in Europe, DPA reported.

Orban gave a speech at a forum of conservatives and nationalists in Rome. He said he had spoken with Spanish far-right opposition leader Santiago Abascal and other supporters from Italy and France.

It has plenty of good reasons for doing so. Fidesz has not only dismantled democracy and the rule of law in Hungary, but also demonised the EU as a tyrannical institution that is supposedly robbing Europeans of their freedom.

A century since the Treaty of Trianon dramatically shrank the size of the Hungarian state and stranded millions of Hungarians beyond its borders, Orban is pouring money into ethnic Hungarian communities in neighbouring states, issuing passports and picking up voters and political leverage for the ruling Fidesz party.

In the best traditions of Magyar Szó, Pressburger says he was promised total editorial independence. But the promise meant little.

"VMSZ tried to influence what we write about," Pressburger told BIRN. "First, they wanted to convince me not to be critical and to write more about VMSZ and less about the other parties."

Erdélyi Médiatér Egyesület has since snapped up the most important Hungarian-language daily newspapers in Transylvania, several glossy magazines, a literary periodical, television and radio and the most important news portal, Székelyhon.

"There is a strong view inside the upper circles of the governing party that if they do not change the line, they may fail in 2022," Gabor Torok, a leading political analyst, told Nepszava daily.

Fidesz has already lured back Orban's longtime spin doctor, Arpad Habony, from his London retreat — to lead a new political offensive and demolish the opposition for good, insiders say.

But analysts say "Trianon Syndrome" is also useful for nationalist-populists keen to portray themselves as protectors of the nation. And few do that better than the ruling Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Newly elected as president of Europe's largest political bloc, the centre-right European People's Party, EPP, Donald Tusk said on Thursday that a group of 'wise men' looking at the currently suspended membership of Hungary's ruling Fidesz party would present its findings by the end of the year.

Croatia's ruling party will host Europe's largest political bloc, the centre-right European People's Party, EPP, on Wednesday and Thursday in Zagreb, a major publicity event for Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic but one that has already caused some controversy.