Opposition: Election a choice between East and West, war and peace

Hungarians will have to make a choice between East and West and between war and peace when they head to the polls on April 3, Péter Márki-Zay, the united opposition’s candidate for prime minister, said at a demonstration in Budapest on Sunday evening.

Márki-Zay told demonstrators in front of the headquarters of Hungary’s public media provider MTVA that when Fidesz narrowly lost the election in 2002, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had drawn the conclusion that “there can’t be any press freedom because then he’d always lose”.

He said the government accused the opposition of wanting to send soldiers and weapons to Ukraine, insisting that it was Orbán who was “sending weapons to Ukraine” because he had joined other European Union leaders in approving the EU delivery of lethal aid to the country.

Márki-Zay said the government was “also lying about the boycott of the non-existent Paks 2 — which they themselves voted for — endangering caps on utility bills”.

“The role of government propaganda mustn’t be underestimated,” Márki-Zay said. “It’s a miracle that after 12 years of brainwashing we have a real chance of replacing the most corrupt government in our history.”

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He insisted that the April 3 elections would not be free “because there are no free elections where people are being brainwashed for 12 years”. He said that “if the elections were free, then Fidesz wouldn’t make it into parliament, or, according to my estimates, would get no more than 20 percent of the vote”.

Independent lawmaker Ákos Hadházy said it should be noted that the opposition’s PM candidate “has not once set foot in “MTVA’s headquarters.