By Martin Banks

Hungarian activists converged on Brussels this week with thousands of blank consultation forms which were collected by over 10,000 citizens across the country. The activists claim the forms “expose the deception that lies behind Hungarian President Orbán’s ‘National Consultations’, revealing it to be a tool of veiled propaganda.” 

President Orbán has, according to the activists “long utilized several tools to influence public opinion during his premiership, including the habitual use of 'national consultations.” aHang, a leading civil society organisation in Hungary, says the surveys “invariably littered with leading questions, typically yield an agreement rate of 98-99%, and thereby consolidate Orbán’s desired narratives, both at home and abroad.”

A statement said, “However, recent data indicates that just 18% of eligible Hungarian voters participated in the latest round of Orban’s propaganda consultation and said no to the EU’s €50 billion special fund for Ukraine. The Hungarian prime minister states that this 18% represents 98% of the Hungarian people’s opinion – stark gap between the government’s propaganda and reality.”

aHang,to date, says it has gathered 350,000 consultation forms and 1.5 million signatures on the most pressing issues facing the nation.

Gergely Hajdu, Strategic Director, aHang, said, “In our steadfast dedication to promoting transparency and an honest dialogue, aHang has amassed a significant collection of hundreds of thousands of national consultation forms. “Students, teachers, small business owners, and nearly 10,000 private individuals have gathered blank national consultation forms, in a move that seeks to challenge the government’s interpretation of the wants of everyday Hungarians,” said Hajdu.

Hajdu added, “They’re raising critical issues that resonate more deeply with the Hungarian populace – educational reform, environmental protection, healthcare improvements, and the future of the nation’s water resources in the face of Orbán’s ambitions to transform Hungary into a battery-manufacturing powerhouse”.

“We brought 100,000 of these forms to Brussels to symbolize the large number of Hungarians who do not align with the government’s presented views,” he added.

The government, he said, has allegedly spent around 20 billion HUF of taxpayer money on its “national consultation”, adding, “this is a sum that dwarfs the 15 million HUF raised by aHang through individual micro-donations by the activists. And, yet, the impact of these community-driven initiatives has, so far, been immeasurable, and demonstrates a societal divide that runs deeper than mere political disagreement.”

He added, “Among the host of crises that currently grip the country, Hungary’s educational system is teetering on the brink. The government’s approach to education, often criticized as archaic, overly centralized, and massively segregating at the same time, is failing to equip students for the demands of a modern, globalized world, and leaving the next generation ill- prepared for the challenges of the future.” 

He concluded, “As Hungary stands at a crossroads, the question remains: can this fractured society find a path to healing and unity, or will the chasm widened by Orbán’s politics become an irreversible part of the nation’s fabric?” No-one from the Hungarian government was immediately available for comment.