Government launches new national consultation
November 22nd, 2023A left-wing pundit suggests that questions put to Hungarians by the government contain implicit lies, while the pro-government nationwide daily condemns the European Commission, after its spokesman also said that the allegations contained in the questionnaire are untrue.
In its ‘national consultation’ which will be mailed until the end of December to all adult Hungarians, the government asks citizens to choose between its own policies and the alternatives it claims ‘Brussels’ represents. The questions cover various policy fields from utility prices to mass migration and the war in Ukraine as well as ‘money sent by Brussels and from overseas to influence politics in Hungary’. A spokesman for the European Commission said the body doesn’t intend to react, although he added that ’as you know, such allegations are untrue’. Zoltán Kovács, the government’s international spokesman reacted saying that ‘Brussels has launched an attack on the national consultation”.
On Hírklikk, Péter Németh calls the questionnaire a collection of ‘explanations about everything – for idiots’. He believes most of the questions put to Hungarians heavily distort the position of the European Commission. Németh also thinks that the national consultation is a propaganda exercise before the local and European elections scheduled for mid-2024. As such, he continues, it should be paid for by Fidesz, rather than from the national budget.
In an unsigned article, Magyar Nemzet condemns the statement made by the spokesman of the European Commission as an ‘unprecedented attack on Hungary’. The pro-government daily describes the words of the spokesman as ’totally absurd’. The national consultation, Magyar Nemzet writes, centres on the protection of Hungary’s national sovereignty and offers citizens an opportunity to express their views on key economic and security issues.