Budapest Post

Cum Deo pro Patria et Libertate
Budapest, Europe and world news

Analysis-Hungary's Orban banks on anti-LGBT campaign in tough re-election bid

Analysis-Hungary's Orban banks on anti-LGBT campaign in tough re-election bid

Prime Minister Viktor Orban is casting himself as the defender of traditional Hungarian values against “LGBT ideology” for the 2022 election in which his party may be vulnerable for the first time to a newly united opposition.

Identity politics, especially a hardline anti-immgration line, and disarray among Orban’s centrist and liberal-left rivals proved instrumental in the absolute majority won by his conservative nationalist Fidesz party in the 2018 election.

But with a border fence having relegated migrants to a secondary issue, and many Hungarians now preoccupied with bread-and-butter issues including soaring pandemic-driven inflation, the opposition has come together and is running just ahead of Fidesz in some polls.

To win again next year, the key for Orban will be getting all of Fidesz’s faithful concentrated in smaller towns and villages back to the ballot box, with a referendum on “LGBT propaganda” likely on the same day as an added fillip.

Yet with inflation running at a 14-year high of 7.4%, Orban will also need some of the undecided voters whom he is targeting with large tax cuts for families, massive pension hikes, a 20% minimum wage rise and a fuel price cap.

“The role of the anti-LGBT campaign could be mainly to give another strong reason to existing Fidesz supporters to vote for this government, cementing the core camp in its convictions,” said Andras Biro-Nagy, director of think tank Policy Solutions.

But, alluding to soaring prices amid a still omnipresent pandemic, he added: “This campaign has its limits and I think in the coming months Fidesz will not succeed in elevating this topic to the most important theme occupying people’s minds.”

The anti-LGBT campaign, which the European Union executive has deplored as discriminatory, escalated in June when the Fidesz-dominated parliament passed a law banning the use of materials seen as promoting homosexuality and gender change at schools, citing the need to protect children.

Blue government billboards then sprang up around the country trumpeting the question: “Are you afraid your child could be exposed to sexual propaganda?”

Orban, nailing his electoral colours to gender and sexuality issues, told a Fidesz congress last month: “We will not give up the right to defend our borders…We insist marriage in Hungary is between a man and a woman, a father is a man and a mother is a woman…and they should leave our children alone.”

In a pitch to the insular nationalism of Fidesz’s popular base, Orban’s chief of staff Gergely Gulyas told website Index.hu on Monday that LGBT rights groups “have huge influence in Brussels”. Gulyas accused the European Commission of blackmailing Budapest over the release of EU economic recovery funds because of its June school legislation.

The government’s publicity campaign has been splashed across print and online media, radio, television and billboards.

It featured in a government survey in which, according to officials, 97% of 1.423 million people who answered questions on issues from tax cuts to immigration welcomed the legislation limiting “sexual propaganda” targeting schoolchildren.

Orban, first elected in 2010, has used such “national consultation” surveys to underpin his populist grip on Hungary’s political agenda and keep his electoral base engaged.

RESONATES IN THECOUNTRYSIDE


In the town of Kecskemet east of Budapest, the anti-LGBT campaign and promised referendum have resonated with tradition-minded residents, while alarming the local LGBT community.

“This is a really good thing … because, really, are we supposed to educate our children to become homosexuals?” said Jozsef Farkas, 69, who said he would vote for Fidesz again.

In the referendum, Hungarians will be asked whether they support the holding of sexual orientation workshops in schools without parental consent, and whether they believe gender reassignment procedures should be “promoted” among children.

They will also be asked whether media content that could affect sexual orientation should be shown to children without restrictions.

Eszter Fejes, 36, an LGBT activist in Kecskemet, said she had faced the campaign up close, bumping into a blue government poster next to the entrance into her apartment block every day.

“Obviously I started to think…about what my family is making of this, or me or this whole issue?” she said.

“But I am more angry from the community standpoint: in general LGBT people are going down an invisible slide when it comes to public opinion…People who are a lot more vulnerable than me are getting into a difficult situation now.”

Fejes said she knows of gay people who do not come out in Kecskemet but rather lead a double life, spending time in Budapest where anonymity is easier.

Over the past decade of Fidesz dominance, Orban has appealed to conservative Hungarians who believe their country is in a struggle to protect its Christian identity – from Muslim immigrants to so-called “gender and LGBT ideology” allegedly foisted on the central European country by Brussels.

But a recent survey by Policy Solutions found the high cost of living to be the No. 1 voter issue – for 47% of Hungarians – followed by low wages and inadequate public healthcare.

Even for Fidesz supporters, LGBT “propaganda” ranked only 10th as among the issues most troubling them, with migration higher up among the top concerns at 17%.

Fidesz swept to re-election in 2014 with 45% of votes cast on party lists and scored a two-thirds majority again in 2018.

Now, however, it confronts a united opposition alliance under Peter Marki-Zay, a practicing Catholic, father of seven and political outsider who vows to scrap the anti-LGBT law that has drawn condemnation by human rights groups and Brussels.

($1 = 324.7200 forints)

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Unelected PM of the UK holds an emergency meeting because a candidate got voted in… which he says is a threat to democracy…
Farmers break through police barriers in Brussels.
Ukraine Arrests Father-Son Duo In Lockbit Cybercrime Bust
US Offers $15 Million For Info On Leaders Of Cybercrime Group Lockbit
Apple warns against drying iPhones with rice
Alexei Navalny: UK sanctions Russian prison chiefs after activist's death
German economy is in 'troubled waters' - ministry
In a recent High Court hearing, the U.S. argued that Julian Assange endangered lives by releasing classified information.
Tucker Carlson says Boris Johnson wants "a million dollars, in Bitcoin or cash, from Tucker Carlson to talk about Ukraine.
Russia is rebuilding capacity to destabilize European countries, new UK report warns
EU Commission wants anti-drone defenses at Brussels HQ
Von der Leyen’s 2nd-term pitch: More military might, less climate talk
EU Investigates TikTok for Child Safety Concerns
EU Launches Probe Into TikTok Over Child Protection Under Digital Content Law
EU and UK Announce Joint Effort on Migration
Ministers Confirm Proposal to Prohibit Mobile Phone Usage in English Schools
Avdiivka - Symbol Of Ukrainian Resistance Now In Control Of Russian Troops
"Historic Step": Zelensky Signs Security Pact With Germany
"Historic Step": Zelensky Signs Security Pact With Germany
Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has died at the Arctic prison colony
Tucker Carlson grocery shopping in Russia. This is so interesting.
France and Germany Struggle to Align on European Defense Strategy
‘A lot higher than we expected’: Russian arms production worries Europe’s war planners
Greece Legalizes Same-Sex Marriage and Adoption Rights
Russia "Very Close" To Creating Cancer Vaccines, Says Vladimir Putin
Hungarian Foreign Minister: Europeans will lose Europe, the Union's policy must change drastically
Microsoft says it caught hackers from China, Russia and Iran using its AI tools
US Rejects Putin's Ceasefire Offer in Ukraine
The Dangers of Wildfire Smoke and Self-Protection Strategies
A Londoner has been arrested for expressing his Christian beliefs.
Chinese Women Favor AI Boyfriends Over Humans
Greece must address role in migrant vessel disaster that killed 600: Amnesty
Google pledges 25 million euros to boost AI skills in Europe
Hungarian President Katalin Novák Steps Down Amid Pardon Controversy
Activist crashes Hillary Clinton's speech, calls her a 'war criminal.'
In El Salvador, the 'Trump of Latin America' stuns the world with a speech slamming woke policing after winning a landslide election
Trudeau reacts to Putin's mention of Canadian Parliament applauding a former Ukrainian Nazi in his interview with Tucker Carlson.
The Spanish police blocked the farmers protest. So the farmers went out and moved the police car out of the way.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy fires top Ukraine army commander
Tucker Carlson's interview with Vladimir Putin raises EU concerns
Finnish Airline, Finnair, is voluntarily weighing passengers to better estimate flight cargo weight
Russia's Economy Expands by 3.6% Due to Increased Military Spending
Ukraine MPs Vote To Permit Use Of Dead Soldiers' Sperm
German Princess Becomes First Aristocrat To Pose Naked On Playboy Cover
UK’s King Charles III diagnosed with cancer
EU's Ursula von der Leyen Confronts Farmer Protests Amid Land Policy Debates
Distinguishing Between Harmful AI Media and Positive AI-Generated Content: A Crucial Challenge for the EU
Tucker Carlson explains why he interviewed Putin
Dutch farmers are still protesting in the Netherlands against the government, following the World Economic Forum's call for 'owning nothing.'
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stands up for European farmers and says, 'Brussels is suffocating European farmers.
×