The Hungarian government has launched a nationwide survey on key topics related to national sovereignty, including EU migration policy, issues related to Ukraine, and foreign influence on Hungarian politics. The survey accompanies a new antiglobalist, EU-skeptical billboard campaign for next June’s European parliamentary elections.
The questionnaire, titled “National Consultation on the Defense of Our Sovereignty,” was mailed out to the 9.6 million Hungarians living within the country’s borders on Friday, November 17th. It asks their opinions on Ukraine’s EU accession, military and financial support for Ukraine, Brussels’ financial support for Palestinian organizations, as well as various government policies Brussels wishes to see abolished, Magyar Nemzet reported.
Four of the survey’s eleven questions concern issues related to Ukraine, and ask citizens whether Ukraine’s EU membership bid ought to be supported, whether additional financial and military support should be provided to the wartorn country, and whether Hungary should allow the import of genetically modified Ukrainian grain.
Additionally, Hungarian citizens can stand in favor of or against the EU’s planned migrant redistribution schemes, government subsidies that reduce household utilities for families, interest rate caps, windfall taxes imposed on large corporations, and the Child Protection Act, which aims to limit the children’s exposure to LGBTQ propaganda and gender ideology.
Survey respondents are also asked whether Brussels should stop providing aid to Palestinian groups, some of which has reached Hamas, and whether the government should enact “stricter legislation” to combat “foreign influence peddlings.”
Hungarian government spokeswoman Alexandra Szentkirályi in a video message posted to Facebook, said the questionnaire was necessary “given [Hungary’s] numerous disputes with Brussels over many years.” She encouraged everyone to express their opinion.
Days after the announcement of the survey, the Hungarian government, to kick off its campaign for next June’s European parliamentary election, unveiled hundreds of billboards featuring EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen alongside Alex Soros, the son of archglobalist George Soros, who is infamous for funding groups and initiatives which aim to undermine the national sovereignty of Hungary and other nation-states across the globe.
The images are accompanied by the words: “Let’s not dance to the tune they whistle,” a quote from a speech delivered by Prime Minister Orbán in October where he slammed the EU as a “bad parody” of the former USSR. “We had to dance to the tune that Moscow whistled. Brussels whistles too, but we dance as we want to, and if we don’t want to, then we don’t dance,” Orbán said during his address to crowds in the city of Veszprém to commemorate the 1956 Hungarian Uprising.
The billboard campaign, like similar EU-skeptical billboard campaigns launched by Fidesz in the past, has prompted unfounded accusations of antisemitism by radical EU federalist politicians and left-liberal news outlets like The Guardian.
Belgian MEP Guy Verhofstadt (Renew) was among those who chimed in on the issue, referring to the billboard campaign on X, formerly known as Twitter, as “scandalous.”
“Fortunately, Hungarians know all too well EU-membership makes them more, not less independent… and they choose Europe over Orbán’s dangerous Putinism and despicable antisemitism,” Verhofstadt wrote, ignoring that Hungary is one of Israel’s closest European allies, one of the safest countries in Europe for Jews, and that Orbán’s Fidesz party enjoys the support of nearly half of the Hungarian population.
Like Verhofstadt, The Guardian, which has repeatedly revealed its pro-Palestinian bias throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict, also used the new billboard campaign—featuring George Soros’ son—to level baseless accusations against the Hungarian government, claiming it is “using antisemitic tropes” to achieve its political aims at home.
