Arpad Habony, Hungarian
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban lost a closely fought election in 2002. Arpad Habony, his political adviser, earned Orban's lasting trust, "We didn't want to win enough".
Stop acting like a prime minister, you are not one anymore. Stop acting like a party leader, you are not that either. Just act like a man from Felscut, the home town of Hungarian leader, Orban.
Habony is widely credited with the engineering the re election for Orban's Fidesz party in 2010.
Yet, the Hungarian government has no official ties with Habony, partly due to his criminal record, in 2006 he received a two year suspended sentence for assaulting a couple in their 50s who tried to cross the street in front of his car. But, he travels with a diplomatic passport.
Habony has become a central conduit for Orban's foreign policy ambitions. In recent years, Habony advised atleast half a dozen parties and candidates across Europe and beyond.
His tactics include bot farms, coordinated disinformation campaigns, deliberate spread of fake news, profoundly shaping public perception, weaponizing democratic institutions, intensifying culture war narratives, free access to IVF, natalist agenda aimed at boosting fertility rates.
He provides the infrastructure and strategic know how to run the sophisticated influence operations.
In Israel, virtually every political party hires a US consultant. Orban too, benefitted from the advice of American consultants funded by EU's centre right European People's party.
Habony is in many ways the product of US Republican strategist Arthur Finkelstein, an early innovator of negative campaigning - focusing on discrediting opponents rather than promoting own candidates in a positive light. Key success for this campaign include Ronald Reagan in the 1976 Republican primary and Netanyahu in 1996, who later introduced Finkelstein to Orban ahead of Hungary's 2010 elections.
Finkelstein advised Fidesz to go relentlessly negative, attacking the government while keeping Orban himself largely out the spotlight. Fidesz won 263 of 386 seats, that is just over 52% of the vote, which gives the required majority to unilaterally rewrite the constitution.
Finkelstein collaborated with Habony, after the re election of Fidesz in 2014, formalising their partnerships by founding Danube consulting firm, a joint venture registered in London aimed at exporting their political strategies abroad.
In 2016, Habony, advised the right wing Croatian Democratic Union's election campaign and former French President Nicolas Sarkozy's failed political comeback.
After Finkelstein's death in 2017, Habony took the entire control of the firm.
The foreign investments that Orban gathered helped rebrand Hungary as the conservative utopia, despite the country being declared as the poorest in the European Union.
Orban began building operations outside Hungary, for which Habony travelled to Washington, to discuss about the launching a Breitbart style outlet. In order to support allies, he bought media organisation and newspapers in North Macedonia and Slovenia. Newspapers aligning with Slovenia's right wing, Orban aligned prime minister, Janez Jansa, was rescued from near bankruptcy through Orban's intervention.
Habony's Slovenian outlet Nova24 promoted reactionary conspiracy theories ahead of 2018 elections, claiming UNHCR distributed credit cards to migrants allowing them to receive thousands of euros per month, and paid to promote Jansa party on social media.
In early 2019, London based V4NA news agency was launched with Habony holding a minority stake. The agency promoted Hungarian government's messaging, churning out anti immigration stories in multiple languages including English. Though Orban denied any official connection with the agency, it was later exposed that Kristof Szalay Bobrovniczky, then ambassador to Britain was the owner of the agency.
In 2023, Habony was advising Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, one of the Orban's closest allies in the region. PiS lost to the Donald Tusk's centrist Civil Platform party, still Habony was able to keep Orban aligned party in power in Slovakia in 2023 elections.
Hungarian government spend money on ads raising the alarm on dangers of illegal immigrations to Polish and Slovak voters.
More recently, Habony advised the Gregorian Dream Party, to develop the conspiratorial conservative tone.
Consultants like Habony, operate in shadows, given the lax financial disclosure requirements for campaigns in many countries, their activities are difficult to trace. The use of shell companies, informal networks and off the books arrangements makes comprehensive documentation nearly impossible. The above cited examples are just few that are publicly known.
Neither Habony's name nor that of his consulting firm appears in Federal Election commission records, a legal requirement for anyone receiving compensation or making contributions in connection with US political campaigns.
Orban government established a "Sovereignty Protection Office" to police even the hint of foreign interference in Hungary elections. This was headed by Tamas Lanczi, a former managing director of Danube Consulting.
Hungary facilitated bank loans to Marine Le Pen's National Rally in France and far right Vox party in Spain.
All these activities blurs the line between consultancy and cover influence.
