When traveling to Hungary, one of the few things one may notice upon arrival, besides the strange language and the pothole filled roads, are these rather densely placed billboards with usually blue backgrounds and white text causing the locals to either roll their eyes as hard as humanely possible or vehemently shake their heads in agreement.
The government started its aggressive propaganda projects in 2015, when a significant mass of migrants from the Middle East fled to Europe. Although most migrants only wanted to go through the country, heading towards Germany or Sweden, Hungary shut down its services and remained hostile about the idea of accepting migrants into the country, or the European Union for that matter.
This led to building fences at Hungary’s borders and several manipulative billboard projects issued by the government to win the support of the country’s citizens. For example, the above billboard appeared after the European Parliament passed an action plan for the integration of already present immigrants in the EU. It does not talk about bringing more immigrants to the members of the union, yet the Hungarian government managed to turn it into its main weapon for its vendetta to awaken hate towards the European Union among Hungarian citizens. “Soros” refers to a Hungarian-Jewish businessman, György Soros who got himself involved in EU politics when the migration crisis started and who greatly supported the action plan, thus becoming the face of the enemy. The several propaganda billboard projects built just around the topic of migration thus left Hungary in a heightened anti-Muslim and anti-Semitic environment, which is still greatly present.
In my Unit 2 essay I would explore the billboard projects that have taken place in the country since 2015, examine their influences on the public’s opinions, showcase the responses of the opposing parties, while also touching on the history and effects of propaganda posters and billboards in different political eras in Hungary (mainly those between 1933 and 1999).
