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Anti-immigration posters targeted

June 9th, 2015

A pro-government columnist criticizes left-wing activists for defacing the government’s giant anti-immigration billboards. The leading anti-government daily, on the other hand, finds it abhorrent that the police have cracked down on the activists.

The left-liberal Together party has called for the government’s advertisements on immigration issues to be removed. The street posters warn migrants (in Hungarian) to respect Hungary’s culture and laws and not to take Hungarian jobs. Six young left-wing activists were questioned by police after they painted over one of the posters in Budapest.

In Magyar Hírlap, Ottó Nagy accuses the left-wing activists of irresponsible behavior. The pro-government commentator dismisses the argument that their performance should be seen as an act of civil disobedience. Nagy believes that there is nothing morally wrong in the government’s demands towards immigrants. Respect for local culture and laws is expected everywhere in the civilized world, and it is also not surprising that states want to protect the job market from illegal migrants, Nagy contends.

Népszabadság, on the other hand, finds the police’s performance nauseating. The leading left-wing daily claims that undercover policemen were on patrol in order to catch activists trying to disfigure the government’s posters. Népszabadság calls it sad and absurd that the police is used for such a purpose.

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