National Roma Self-Government

Politics

The ORÖ's politics have been increasingly marked by political polarisation between the right-wing Lungo Drom party (affiliated with Fidesz–KDNP) and the left-wing Romani Alliance Party [hu] (associated with the Hungarian Socialist Party), in line with simultaneous polarisation throughout Hungary.^[2]

The Hungarian government has interfered in ORÖ elections since 1994,^[5] particularly to benefit the Lungo Drom party. This has included providing Lungo Drom with large amounts of state funding relative to other parties and, during the 1994 elections to the ORÖ's presidency and assembly, moving the election to Szolnok (Lungo Drom's headquarters) rather than Budapest, where all other elections for minority self-governments were held.^[6] Flórián Farkas, leader of Lungo Drom and former president of the ORÖ, served as a member of the National Assembly for Fidesz from 2002 to 2022. The ORÖ was additionally represented in the National Assembly by Félix Farkas [hu], a Lungo Drom member, from 2014 to 2022. During the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary election, members of the ORÖ not belonging to Lungo Drom attempted to remove Farkas as representative, causing a political crisis in the body over the legitimate representative. As the self-government did not submit a candidate for representative before the legal deadline, the Roma lost their representation in the National Assembly, making it the first time since minority self-governments had been allowed parliamentary representation in 2014 that the Roma did not have representation.^[7]

In the 2026 Hungarian parliamentary election ORÖ president István Aba-Horváth resigned in order to run as the ORÖ's representative with the support of Fidesz. He was not successfully elected, and instead became a non-voting member.^[8]