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Philip Rákay, a conservative influencer and businessman, spoke about his work and personal challenges during an interview to Hungarian weekly Mandiner. The interview was mainly about his occupation, his recently released works and upcoming films, but also about his relationship with the governing party Fidesz and how the limelight has affected his family’s life.
Philip Rákay currently owns a group of consultancy and real estate development companies, and is known as a broadcaster. In April 2002, he was the host of the Fidesz rally in Budapest’s Kossuth Square, thus revealing his political allegiances. Ahead of the 2022 general elections, he founded Megafon, whose members use social media to reach out to people, countering what they see as predominant left-wing voices. They also offer courses for those who want to amplify conservative voices on social media.
Philip Rákay’s personality is divisive, especially in left-wing circles, as has become clear from the incident he recounted in the interview.
According to him, the opposition often spread lies about him, and his children have been the main victims of these lies recently.
He said in the interview that he had to remove his children from a school where they had been branded fascists by other pupils, and that the teachers had passively assisted the abuse. “During the campaign, we were harassed daily, our house was filmed, drones were used and my wife and I were repeatedly threatened with death,” he said. Philip Rákay added that opposition members typically fail to report on how many people he and his family directly and indirectly provided jobs for, or how they helped dozens of families, for example during Covid-19.
In the interview, he also talked about how the opposition is trying to shame him for having an expensive car, among other things. According to him, he has worked hard throughout the decades, and can afford to buy such a car with his own money. The problem, he says, is that it is usually the rhetoric of the opposition to say that if someone is wealthy, they must have stolen what they have. He added that he never posts anything about his personal life, because that would give munition for his haters and opponents.
Regarding his filming career, he and his creative team have been working for months on a film about the Battle of Mohács (1526), a major event in Hungarian history. He has already made a movie with other producers about Hungary’s national poet, Sándor Petőfi, scheduled to be released in 2024. Philip Rákay is also one of the producers of a historical document series on the life of Hungarian king Andrew II (1176-1235), called Golden Bull. The series received a somewhat negative welcome after its released last year, but, according to Rákay, this was only motivated by hatred against him not against the show itself.
Featured photo via Facebook/Philip Rákay