Campaign season in Hungary, Part 1

Written by Scott Savoie

The Hungarian elections are in the spring; placards and billboards are currently going up everywhere to promote either the red party or the orange party.

It looks to most observers that the red party, MSZP, is about to get kicked out on their ears.

There is growing distrust, it seems, in a government that began its reign with a declaration about how much they themselves lied during the last election.

The Hungarian economy is in recession and so the opposition party, Fidesz (the orange party), stands to gain a lot of ground. There are smaller conservative parties that could gain ground as well: MDF (usually depicted by party leader Ibolya David and the color green) and Jobbik (a new right-wing nationalist conservative party that seems to want to take all of the flag’s colors – red, white, and green).

One hopes that Fidesz doesn’t trot out the giant black posters from four years ago. These posters portrayed a squalid individual, sometimes three stories high, giving the morose message „We are worse (off).” This dismal message were repeated throughout January and February. It was depressing.

One hopes the campaign will be more upbeat with lots of cute kids and clouds and rainbows.

How old is Kovács Pisti, poster boy in the last election...? Is he still cute?