00:00 The official EU election campaign in Hungary started on Saturday, which means candidates
00:07 can now start collecting voters. Both the municipal and European Parliament elections
00:12 will be held on the same day the Fidesz party decided to hold them together in order to
00:17 cut costs. Election experts say that the opposition have very few options to promote their campaign
00:25 due to the media being vastly controlled by the current government.
00:32 Most of the campaign tools are owned by companies belonging to the Fidesz party.
00:39 The media is decidedly united in the KESMA of 430 companies.
00:46 The huge posters are also decidedly belonging to the Fidesz party, so the opposition has
00:53 very few options. However, the electronic media, which is decidedly
01:00 owned by the public media, is legally free, only the government buys them from state money,
01:07 state money that the taxpayers give to private companies, private advertising.
01:14 There is an international effort to ensure that European Parliament elections are ethical,
01:26 as there is speculation in several member states.
01:33 The European Parliament parties have signed an ethical code for each of the two countries.
01:40 No one in Hungary has signed this code. This is not good news.
01:47 The other piece of news is that the Supreme Court has decided to cancel all election cases.
01:54 This is a problem because in the past four years, if the National Election Commission
02:02 had decided to do something about it, the Supreme Court would have cancelled it.
02:09 I do not expect good things to happen in the Hungarian judiciary.
02:16 According to experts, campaigning is increasingly moving online due to the older generations
02:22 also learning how to use the internet, influenced by the younger generations like their grandchildren.
02:29 (car engine revving)
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