By Viktoria Borosan
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 humanly 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 (Hartocollis and Bilefsky).
This led to building fences at Hungary’s borders and several manipulative billboard projects, now at a total expenses of $136 666 666, issued by the government to win the support of the country’s citizens. The billboards are used to keep up the façade of democracy by advertising the countless referenda that have been issued since 2015 on topics such as the migration crisis, tax regulations or the censorship on the display of the LGBTQ+ community in the media. Additional purposes for billboard projects consist of but are not limited to the villainization of the opposing parties’ representatives as well as of civilians, such as György Soros, the slandering of the European Union, mainly for its projects of integration for already present immigrants, and the constant praising of the present government.
The result of these manipulative and invasive billboards is a now highly Anti-Muslim, Anti-Semitic, racist and homophobic Hungary.
Although the government’s supporters keep increasing in number at a worrisome rate, several groups and organizations do their best to spread the truth about the European Union’s plans of dealing with the migrant crisis and the Hungarian government’s “preventive” actions. Those, who take the time to do their own research, often respond by leaving their comments on the government’s billboards, thus reclaiming these public spaces.
As the year 2021 began and the crisis caused by COVID-19 dramatically worsened in Hungary, with over 3 000-5 000 new daily cases in a country with a population of less than 10 million, one would have expected the government to rather spend on healthcare than on propaganda. One must admit, they did issue a smaller billboard campaign about getting the vaccine, however their main vendetta this year targeted the members of the LGBTQ+ community (Detrekői).
By starting off the year with the passing of a law that prohibits single and/or gay people to adopt children, the Hungarian government has set the tone, which later on led to the passing of the “reformed pedophile” law. The new law was initially meant to add to the list of crimes that suffice as sexual crimes against children, however, by the regulations set within, it is now prohibited to represent the members of the LGBTQ+ community in the media, so that children are not exposed to the topic. An example of this is the fact that any movie that has an LGBTQ+ character in it can now be broadcast on national television only after 10 pm. To gain support for this law, yet another referendum was scheduled, along with a billboard project to advertise it, which, this time, was customized to reach younger audiences by the utilization of emojis, as well (Vass).
The fact that the majority of the new billboards contain a negative message and attempt to villainize a group or organization tells you all you need to know. The government has been trying to spread fear among the citizens of Hungary for over 6 years now and many believe that the results of the elections in 2022 will be the true reflection of just how good of a job the governing party has done.
The reason some Hungarians see a beacon of hope for change is the amount of rage the latest project was met with. More people began to feel like the government is being condescending towards them with the way they presented such important topics in a childish, beyond manipulative way. As a result, most billboards that opposers came across were simply torn down with respect to the few that already carried a message to the issuer.
With the new year getting closer, the people of Hungary are expecting the heavy dose of propaganda that comes with the elections with a tired soul, because opposer or supporter, hate will never bring peace to anybody. It is now in the hands of the citizens to bring change to the country and turn the hopes for a happier, richer, more open-minded Hungary into reality, if they are willing.
Works cited:
Hartocollis, Anemona and Bilefsky, Dan. “Train Station in Budapest Cuts Off Service to Migrants.” The New York Times, 1. Sep. 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/02/world/europe/keleti-train-station-budapest-migrant-crisis.html?ref=oembed.
Detrekői, Zsuzsa. “The Hungarian Pedophile Law: How Talking About LGBTQ Will Land You in Trouble.” The CMDS Blog, 3. Aug. 2021, https://medium.com/center-for-media-data-and-society/the-hungarian-pedophile-law-how-talking-about-lgbtq-will-land-you-in-trouble-d2ce9f5fa269.
Ábrahám, Vass. “Fidesz Gov’t’s New Political Ad Campaign Uses Emojis to Advertise Nat’l Survey.” Hungary Today, 8. Jul. 2021, https://hungarytoday.hu/fidesz-government-billboard-campaign-emojis-natl-survey-soros-migration-taxation/.
