István Hollik, the communications director for the ruling Fidesz party in Hungary, has called on MP András Fekete-Győr to resign after his conviction. Fekete-Győr, a member of the liberal opposition Momentum party, was originally convicted in May 2023, found guilty of assault on a public official. The appellate court upheld the trial court’s decision earlier this month.
At a 2018 anti-government protest, MP Fekete-Győr threw a smoke grenade at the police officers protecting the Parliament building.
He was sentenced to one year in prison, suspended for two years. Hollik called on ‘FeGyőr’ (a commonly used nickname for András Fekete-Győr, which ironically translates to ‘corrections officer’) to resign from his position after his conviction in a Facebook post, writing:
‘Momentum will protest in the evening. It would be nice if today, for once, there would be no violence against any officers. We know that they have a habit of throwing smoke grenades at the police, but at least this time they should obey the law.
By the way, instead of protesting, Anna Donáth should be busy getting his mandate back from András Fekete-Győr, who has committed violence against a public official. Those who have been convicted by the court should resign! Even if their teacher, [former Prime Minister of Hungary] Ferenc Gyurcsány, taught them to never take responsibility for anything.’
However, MP Fekete-Győr is not willing to give up his position.
In fact, he has never even apologized for his criminal conduct. After the 2018 incident, he was interviewed by the opposition-aligned news site 444.hu. In the interview, he admitted to having thrown the smoke grenade; and said that he has ‘no regrets’ about it either, as certain methods are necessary to make the protest have an impact.
His political party, Momentum, has reacted to the recent development in a public statement. ‘While the helpers of paedophiles are being let go, this regime would send fathers with families to prison,’ they wrote, in reference to the pardon scandal which led to the resignation of President Katalin Novák and MP, former Minister of Justice Judit Varga. However, this statement also draws attention to the fact that people from the right-wing Fidesz party, even in high leadership positions, are willing to take accountability for their actions, while convicted criminal András Fekete-Győr from the left-wing Momentum party is still not willing to resign.
It is also unclear why his party is adamant about sticking by him. At times, he seems to be more of a liability than an asset.
Fekete-Győr was their candidate in the 2021 opposition primary election, and he ended up performing abysmally. He only got 3.4 per cent of the vote, finishing dead last out of the five candidates on the ballot. Also, prior to that, he had appeared on the left-leaning political online show Partizán for in an interview in April 2021. His appearance drew ridicule even from the liberal opposition base, pointing out that he came across as an unprepared student trying to pass an oral exam in secondary school.
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