User:Davidkah/Szikra Mozgalom

Spark Movement (Szikra Mozgalom, Hungarian: [sikrɒ]) is a left-wing political movement in Hungary, formed in 2020 from a group of activists formerly known as Free Budapest (Szabad Budapest) who helped the campaign of leftist candidates they have elected in the 2019 Hungarian local elections.

They are currently functioning as a registered association to enforce democratic socialist, social democratic and green policies aimed at representing workers’ interests, preserving the natural environment, and strengthening democratic values.

The parliamentary candidate of Spark Movement for the 2022 Hungarian elections András Jámbor won his battleground constituency by a notable margin.

At the 2019 Hungarian local elections
Free Budapest was formed in 2019 consisting of both rural and local young people living in the capital city with the aim of supporting the campaigns of four candidates in the local elections. These included Gergely Karácsony, Co-Chairman of Dialogue for Hungary running for the title of Mayor of Budapest, former journalist and activist András Pikó, running candidate for Mayor of District VIII, Krisztina Baranyi running candidate for Mayor of District IX, and Balázs Szücs, a Calvinist priest and local canidate for District VIII.

The most spectacular event of the newly founded organization in these few months was the demonstration called "Farewell Party for Tarlós" on the night before the municipal elections. They were demonstrating with various signs and placards in front of the Budapest Town Hall. All four candidates that were supported won the elections.

Formation and the Airbnb campaign
Building on the success of the 2019 local elections, today’s Spark Movement was formed on October 14, 2020, an organization representing a now long-term strategy.

The organization has good relations with similar movements in the Central and Eastern European region, such as Left Together in Poland, The Left in Slovenia and We Can in Croatia.

In the autumn of 2020, Spark Movement, together with several other organizations started collecting signatures on the site of online civic communication organization aHang to put pressure on local governments to restrict the rental of apartments for tourism purposes. They highlighted that rental costs had risen so dramatically in recent years that they had become unaffordable for a large number of people. The campaign aimed to steer flats that were currently operating as an Airbnb towards the long-term rental market, thereby reducing rental costs and easing the housing crisis. Spark Movement states that “housing is a fundamental right, not a commodity”.

Protesting against China's Fudan University
In May 2021, Spark had already prepared for the election campaign of their future parliamentary candidate, András Jámbor. At the same time, the Fidesz government decided to bring a European campus for Chinese state-owned Fudan University to Budapest, financed by a Chinese bank loan and the Hungarian taxpayer's money. The campus would have been built on the soil of the already planned Student City (Diákváros), depriving thousands of Hungarian rural students from a dorm room in the capital city. As the events of Fudan University and Student City directly affected Jámbor's district and as it was connected to the housing crisis, a demonstration was organized in support of the Student City and against Fudan. The protest marked the beginning of Jámbor's run and also later defined his campaign.

Freedom of assembly has been continuously restricted by Fidesz since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic. At that time, according to a government decree, only people with immunity cards were allowed to be at an outdoor event that had more than 500 participants, but for people without cards only events lesser than 500 people were allowed. This way Spark Movement organized one larger crowd of people and four smaller ones that were separated from the rest, thus abiding by the law.

This event took place on June 5, 2020, making it the first major demonstration since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The demonstration started at Heroes' Square and continued across Andrássy Avenue ending in front of the Hungarian Parliament Building and was attended by more than 10,000 people. Among multiple speeches, Candidate of Spark Movemement András Jámbor, Mayor of Budapest Gergely Karácsony, and furthermore representatives of the Student Union (Hallgatói Szakszervezet) and housing organizations gave talks.

At the 2021 Hungarian opposition primary
In 2020, six Hungarian opposition parties agreed to hold joint primaries next year in preparation for the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections. In March 2021, Spark Movement announced that it would run a parliamentary candidate in the 6th Constituency of Budapest, András Jámbor, a former journalist, founder and former editor-in-chief of independent leftist online newspaper Mérce. At the beginning of the primaries, András Jámbor was backed by MSZP and Dialogue, later LMP politicians also helped his campaign.

The other candidates in the constituency were Dániel Manhalter from social liberal DK, Anett Csordás, supported by liberal Momentum, and Márta Demeter from conservative Jobbik. András Jámbor won a decisive victory of 3626 votes, meaning 41.6% of the electorate.

Political actions and the 2022 Hungarian parliamentary elections
In October 2021, a labour strike began at the Continental factory in Makó. To express their support, members of Spark and András Jámbor visited the company, condemning the government for depriving workers of their rights, not taking any actions against the company making it impossible for trade unions to organize, and disregarding working conditions. According to Jámbor, there have been many examples in recent years of big business in strategic partnership with Fidesz government that were abusing employee rights. It can be seen that the government gives companies tax cuts and benefits, but it does not hold them accountable for workers' rights violations, living wages and proper working conditions. The signs made by Spark Movement said, "If you come to Hungary, you have to follow the laws", imitating one of the repeated anti-immigration phrases of Fidesz in a different context.

In February 2022, Spark Movement stood up for teachers movements as well as occasional demonstrations and wild strikes. They complained that the government, under the pretext of pandemic restrictions, was making the teachers' strike impossible. Spark supported teachers' unions that had appealed to the Constitutional Court over the government decree. Spark supported the strike fund with HUF 200,000, and its members took part in organizing several teacher and student demonstrations.

During the parliamentary elections on April 3, 2022, András Jámbor from the Spark Movement won the 6th constituency of Budapest with 48% of the vote against Sára Botond from Fidesz, Dóra Dúró, Vice President of Our Homeland, and Zsuzsanna Döme, Co-President of the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party.

Organizational structure
The Spark is a democratic organization operating in a formal and hierarchical structure. The movement takes the campaigns of Jeremy Corbyn in the UK, Bernie Sanders in the US, Syriza in Greece, and Podemos in Spain as inspiring examples.

Famous supporters of the Spark Movement and the campaign of András Jámbor

 * Márk Áron Éber, sociologist, az co-editor of online magazine Új Egyenlőség
 * Zsuzsa Ferge, sociologist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
 * Jenő Setét, Roma civil rights activist
 * Olivér Csepella, musician
 * Renátó Fehér, poet
 * Gergely Karácsony, politician, Mayor of Budapest
 * Kamilla Vida, poet