The leading pro-government daily fears that an opposition victory in the Sunday election could result in Hungary joining a potential nuclear war in Ukraine. A left-wing pundit finds such allegations nauseating.
Hungarian press roundup by budapost.eu
Magyar Nemzet’s Gábor Baranyai writes that “if the country makes the wrong choice on Sunday, Hungary’s future will be overshadowed by a nuclear mushroom cloud – if there is a Hungarian future at all”. The pro-government commentator accuses the Left of jeopardizing Hungarian security by expressing a willingness to send weapons as well as soldiers to support Ukraine – a state that actively violated the language rights of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia. Baranyai finds it peculiar that those politicians who often criticized Regent Horthy for sending troops to the Soviet Union in World War Two would risk Hungarian involvement in a conflict that may potentially escalate into a nuclear war.
In Népszava, Péter Németh finds nauseating and outrageous the allegations of the government and its media hinterland that accuse the opposition of demanding the deployment of Hungarian soldiers in the Ukraine war. The left-wing columnist suggests that the government is distorting the opposition’s messages and is lying about the opposition stance on the Ukraine war. In consequence, it presents a false dichotomy – the claim that the opposition wants war, while the government is in favour of peace. This strategy also helps the government to cover its lack of a meaningful political vision, Németh thinks, before praising the non-government media for painting a fair and objective picture of the Ukraine war and Hungary’s stance on it, rather than accusing PM Orbán of being an ally of Russian President Putin.
Featured photo illustration by MTI/AP/Rodrigo Abd