Fidesz Tries to Soften Views on Guest Workers

Translation of an article originally published in Hungarian by Magyar Jelen on June 15, 2025 by János Kemény.

Filep Dávid (nicknamed Kopasz, “The Bald One”), a pro-government influencer known for his megaphone appearances, posted a short video claiming that 25 million Asian immigrants live in Europe who neither stab people nor set off bombs, even though “they also come from a different culture,” but they “arrived legally,” he added, immediately offering his own explanation.

There are serious domestic political reasons behind this reaction. According to János Lantos, head of the labor policy cabinet for Mi Hazánk Mozgalom (Our Homeland Movement), Filep is clearly trying, without success, to resolve a contradiction that now bothers even Fidesz voters: while the government claims to oppose migration, Asian guest workers are pouring into the country.

Lantos responded on social media, arguing that Fidesz is finding it increasingly difficult to explain to its own supporters why, despite publicly rejecting migration, it has in fact been importing large numbers of Asian guest workers for years.

In his post, Lantos noted that government communication seeks to draw a sharp distinction between illegal and legal migration. However, he warned that Western Europe’s example shows migration, including legal forms, can, over time, create serious social tensions, with no-go zones emerging as a result.

“We were already warning about the dangers of migration when Fidesz was still a member of the Liberal International and had not even considered addressing the issue,” he said, referring to the 2015 migrant crisis, when the ruling party first made migration a central theme in its political messaging.

“You can steal program points and rhetorical elements from the national-radical side, but if a system is not nationalist in its actual content and structure, this will eventually become obvious,” he added.

“That is what we are seeing now. Fidesz’s economic policy clearly serves global capitalism, handing out countless non-repayable state subsidies to global big capital, which has no intention of employing Hungarians. Instead, they bring in cheap Asian guest workers. But guest workers are still migrants, and if nothing is done, they will stay here.”

Lantos also disputed the claim that guest workers pose no public safety risks, citing specific cases such as a rape in Debrecen committed by a Chinese guest worker, and reports of fights involving guest workers. Based on such incidents, Mi Hazánk warns that public safety problems may increase in proportion to the rising number of guest workers.

“It is cold comfort to say ‘at least they do not set off bombs.’ They just beat people up in the street, and meanwhile we are still losing our homeland,” Lantos stated, adding that his party remains the only political force to reject all forms of migration without exception.