From our special shipping to Budapest
Impossible to escape it. All along the 20 km which separate the airport from the capital, electoral propaganda is displayed on the large advertising panels which line the expressway. In the center of Budapest, posters of Viktor Orbán line the tram stops in the colors of the Hungarian flag. On a red, white and green background, a slogan accompanies the portrait of the Prime Minister, vying for a fifth consecutive mandate during the legislative elections of April 12: “Let us unite against the war!”
His opponents benefit from less flattering treatment: the opponent Péter Magyar, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, are exposed on the Morris columns which flank the main boulevards, like convicts. The trio is accused of wanting to drag Hungary into war. “They are dangerous!” Let’s stop them”order the posters of Fidesz, the party of a prime minister whose proximity to Moscow has never been denied.
Viktor Orbán stokes fears of war in Ukraine
For the first time since the start of his reign sixteen years ago, Viktor Orbán is in danger. Published on March 25, a poll by the independent Medián institute gave 58% of the votes to Péter Magyar and Tisza, the center-right party around which the opposition has coalesced. The outgoing Prime Minister only received 35% of the voting intentions. By playing on the fears of the war raging in his Ukrainian neighbor, Viktor Orbán chose to duplicate the winning strategy of 2022, observes Andras Ajtay. “But people have had enough”thinks the man who today heads the office of independent deputy Bence Tordai, an elected official who is not running for re-election. “The level of propaganda is high but it no longer works: the war in Ukraine is not the reason for the lack of beds in hospitals. And it’s not the war in Ukraine that explains why Hungarian teachers’ salaries are so low either.”he argues….
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