Hungarian opposition leader gets first and probably only chance to speak on state-run media

Hungarian opposition leader gets first and probably only chance to speak on state-run media
Opposition candidate Peter Marki-Zay tried to challenge state propaganda in the five-minute slot given to all candidates.
By bne IntelliNews March 17, 2022

After more than three years in politics as a mayor and five months into the job as the joint prime ministerial candidate of the six-party opposition alliance, Peter Marki-Zay received his first invitation to appear on state media on March 16.

"Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to speak for five minutes in four years in the name of the Hungarian opposition, I am here representing about 2.5-3mn people", MZP said in kicking off the interview on the M1 news channel.

Then he informed viewers that Orban would not hold a prime ministerial debate. He has refused to engage in a debate after being humiliated by then prime minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in 2006 and then losing the election by a thin margin.

In the interview, the small town conservative mayor refuted Fidesz's accusations that he would send weapons to Ukraine and a number of other claims point by point

"Warmongers had accused the opposition of wanting to send weapons and soldiers to Ukraine. Meanwhile, it is Viktor Orban sending weapons to Ukraine... he has also promised British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to provide military aid to Ukraine," he said.

The prime minister candidate refuted claims that he would unwind energy price caps, scrap the 13 months pension and privatise healthcare.

The opposition is campaigning with the promise of scrapping the tax on the minimum wage and increasing net wages for low-earning income earners and keeping social programmes launched by Fidesz, including the freeze of energy prices.

He recalled the mismanagement of the pandemic, which cost the lives of 44,000 Hungarians. Per inhabitants, Hungary had the third-highest death rate in the EU after Russia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and is ranked very high globally.

The 49-year-old former engineer, a devoted Christian and father of seven, recalled that he was a conservative Christian when Orban was still a staunch liberal in the early 1990s, when he was a leading figure in the European liberal party establishment. A few years before a group of law students founded the anti-Communist Fidesz party, he had been a member of the Communist party’s youth movement.

Hungary’s illiberal leader has never reflected on his early years and his U-turns when confronted in parliament. The public only knows this through independent media, as he has not given interviews to outlets critical of his government since his first supermajority in 2010.

Hungary needs a regime change on April 3, we need honest people, accountability, and we need to join the European Public Prosecutor's Office so that Hungary can receive the EU funds currently withheld from us, he added. 

Fidesz has turned state media, which operates from an annual HUF130bn (€342mn) funding from the budget, into a mouthpiece of the government over the last 12 years. Fidesz cronies have expanded aggressively in the private sector, buying up newspapers and online sites. The Central European Press Foundation, run by Orban loyalists, consists of 500 media outlets funded by state ads. With the help of the Fidesz appointed Media Council members, independent radio station Klubradio was stripped of its license last year.

Running on a joint list has drawbacks. During the last election four years ago each of the main opposition parties had the chance to speak about their election programme for five minutes.

Marki-Zay’s first appearance on public television has probably been his last, and the same is true for the leaders of the six parties, who have basically been on a blacklist at state media for years.

The one and only interview with Budapest mayor Gergely Karacsony at M1 news channel after his upset victory in October 2019 even drew disapproval from a number of Fidesz politicians due to the aggressive and hostile questioning by the anchor.

Over the next three weeks, the news channel M1 will be broadcasting five-minute live interviews with the leaders of national parties and party alliances running in the election. 

The Two-Tailed Dog Party, a satirical party established in 2006, will be the next in line on Thursday. Four years ago its candidate dressed up in a chicken costume and made a clucking sound during the entire interview.

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