Momentum Movement

You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Hungarian. (October 2017) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Hungarian article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Consider adding a topic to this template: there are already 594 articles in the main category, and specifying|topic= will aid in categorization. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Hungarian Wikipedia article at [[:hu:Momentum Mozgalom]]; see its history for attribution. You should also add the template {{Translated|hu|Momentum Mozgalom}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Momentum Movement Momentum Mozgalom
Abbreviation	Momentum
Leader	Anna Donáth
Deputy Leader	Márton Tompos
Executive Board Members	Katalin Cseh Dávid Bedő Miklós Hajnal Márton Tompos Anna Orosz Tamás Soproni[1]
Spokesperson	Vacant
Founded	4 March 2017
Headquarters	1077 Budapest, Rózsa utca 22.
Newspaper	Van remény
Youth wing	Momentum TizenX
Membership	2,500
Ideology	Liberalism[2][3]
Political position	Centre[4][5]
National affiliation	United for Hungary
European affiliation	Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe[6]
International affiliation	Liberal International
European Parliament group	Renew Europe
Colours	Purple
Slogan	"New faces, new Hungary" (Hungarian: "Új arcok, új Magyarország")
National Assembly	10 / 199
European Parliament	2 / 21
County Assemblies	30 / 381
General Assembly of Budapest	3 / 33
Website
momentum.hu
Politics of Hungary Political parties Elections

Momentum Movement (Hungarian: Momentum Mozgalom, shortly Momentum) is a centrist Hungarian political party founded in March 2017. It came to national prominence as a political association in January 2017 after organizing a petition about the Budapest bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics, calling for a public referendum on the matter. The petition, which gathered over 266,151 signatures, was successful, but the government cancelled the Olympic bid before a referendum could have been held.^[7] After its establishment as a political party, Momentum quickly built a national following, and presently has approximately 4,000 members.^[when?] Momentum party candidates appeared on the ballot in most electoral districts in the

In the 2019 European Parliament election in Hungary, the party obtained 9.86% and became the third largest party in the election. Two candidates of the party – Katalin Cseh and Anna Donáth – were elected to the European Parliament.^[11]

Political positions

Momentum advocates for the replacement of the present Hungarian political elite, including the government of Viktor Orbán, with a "new breed of political community in Hungary."^[12] The party is generally pro-European, pro-globalization, and anti-Putin, claiming that Hungary does not need to sacrifice its own interests in order to fulfil its commitments to the European Union. The party's social views are largely progressive in nature; it supports same-sex marriage, the decriminalisation of cannabis, and abortion rights.^[13] Momentum nonetheless calls itself a centrist party, and rejects classification on either side of the political spectrum. It calls for bipartisan co-operation, writing in its mission statement that Hungary "must not be divided by ideological battles, but brought together by common goals."^[14]

History

In early 2015, the Momentum Movement group was created by ten Hungarians. On November 3, 2016, the group registered as an association, led by lawyer Dániel Károly Csala. By February 2017, the association lead a drive for a referendum on Budapest's bid for the 2024 Summer Olympics: they had 143 members and 1,800 activists. On March 4, 2017, Momentum Movement became an official political party, with 99 founding members. András Fekete-Győr was elected as party leader, while Anna Orosz, Tamás Soproni, Edina Pottyondy and Barnabás Kádár became deputy presidents.^[15]

In May 2017, pollsters estimated that the party stood at 3% national support. Most of its supporters were high school graduates under the age of 40 or college-educated urban residents.^{[citation needed]} In October 2017, the party released its platform for the upcoming election (Hungarian: országos program), a 363-page document proposing solutions to an array of perceived issues in the Hungarian governmental system. The critical reception to the document was mixed: one major Hungarian news outlet, the Magyar Idők, called the document a "pile of empty promises," while another, hvg.hu, wrote that the document's proposed healthcare policy seemed "the most detailed and thorough." In March 2018, the party announced that their parliamentary candidates would be on the ballot in 97 out of 106 electoral districts in Hungary. On April 8, 2018, the party obtained 3.08% of the popular vote in the parliamentary elections. Momentum did not meet the threshold for the party to be recognized in parliament, but qualified for government subsidies for the next term.

On May 5, 2018, the president of the party resigned, and the three head directors of the party temporarily took over leadership. In April 2019, the party was registered for the 2019 European Parliament election. On May 26, 2019, the party obtained 9.86% of the popular vote (becoming the third largest party in the election), thus meeting the 5% threshold: two candidates of the party were elected to the European Parliament.

In

Organizational structure

Organizational hubs

Momentum has 95 organizational hubs across Hungary, as well as ten international hubs in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the UK, Belgium, France, Denmark and Sweden.^[16]

Organizational structure

Operation of Momentum is overseen by a chair of five members, including the president of the party (see below), while the Congress of Delegates (Hungarian: Küldöttgyűlés) serves as the party's primary decision-making group.

Chair members

• President: András Fekete-Győr, a lawyer and one of the founders of Momentum
• Vice President:
  Anna Júlia Donáth
  , a sociologist who previously worked with NGOs on problems of immigration and gay rights
• Executive Board Members
  • Dániel Berg, previously the international attorney of Momentum
  • Miklós Hajnal, the leader of Momentum's anti-Olympic bid campaign

Election results

National Assembly

Election	Leader	Constituency		Party list		Seats	+/–	Status
		Votes	%	Votes	%
2018	András Fekete-Győr	75,033	1.36% (#6)	175,229	3.06% (#6)	0 / 199	new	Extra-parliamentary
2022[a]	Anna Donáth	1,983,708	36.90% (#2)	1,947,331	34.44% (#2)	10 / 199	10	Opposition

European Parliament

Election year	European Parliament				EP group
	No. of overall votes	% of overall vote	No. of overall seats won	+/–
2019	344,512	9.93% (#3)	2 / 21	2	Renew Europe

History of leaders

	Image	Name	Entered office	Left office	Length of Leadership
1		András Fekete-Győr	4 March 2017	10 October 2021	4 years, 7 months and 6 days
–		Anna Orosz (interim)	10 October 2021	21 November 2021	1 month and 11 days
2		Anna Donáth	21 November 2021	29 May 2022	6 months and 8 days
3		Ferenc Gelencsér	29 May 2022	28 January 2024	1 year, 7 months and 30 days
4		Anna Donáth	28 January 2024	present	2 months and 21 days

References