For example, Momentum has appeared on the public television's screen one time since the 2018 elections for five minutes, which they were given before the 2019 European Parliament elections.Continue reading
Péter Márki-Zay, the joint opposition’s candidate for prime minister, was allowed to speak for five minutes on the state-owned media channel, M1, representing the opposition’s election program. It was the first time that the mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, who also won the opposition’s primary election last year, could enter the building of Hungary’s state television.
The opposition parties, which were able to register a national list for the April 3 election, were given five minutes this year to appear on M1 as promised, which the MTVA secured for them beyond their legal obligation. In the last four years since the last election, opposition parties were given the chance only a handful of times to appear on the news channel.
Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to give the opposition five minutes to speak in four years,”
Péter Márki-Zay started his speech, adding that he represents 2.5-3 million people.
The mayor of Hódmezővásárhely told viewers:
They hide the truth from you,”
referring to the state-owned news channel, and said that it is much easier to lie than to present reality. According to him, from what is presented about him in the Fidesz media, not even his own children and the people of Hódmezővásárhely recognize him. He emphasized that he is a conservative, Christian family man with seven children, but Fidesz’s media paints a completely different picture of him.
“They also keep lying about the war, claiming that we want to send troops when it is Viktor Orbán who “is sending weapons to Ukraine,” and he promised military assistance to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson,” he said, adding that when he spoke about possible military assistance, he was attacked for it. (However, there is no proof that Hungary would be sending weapons to Ukraine. The government has only allowed NATO troops to deploy into western Hungary, and weapons shipments have been permitted through the region to other NATO member states, while transport of military personnel and power directly between the Ukrainian and Hungarian border is prohibited).
“Don’t leave the firefighting to an arsonist,” Márki-Zay said, referring to the fact that Viktor Orbán has used war rhetoric in his speeches for the past twelve years. (The meaning of this saying is similar as it would be to “Do not set the fox to keep the geese”).
He noted that he used to support the pro-European and anti-Putin Viktor Orbán who used to promise the introduction of the euro and accountability. Márki-Zay also said that he was a conservative before Orbán.
He commemorated the victims of the coronavirus epidemic in Hungary – 44,000 people – and accused the government of using the pandemic to steal.
Neither opposition nor governing party theft should go unpunished,”
the opposition’s candidate said.
Márki-Zay refuted point by point the claims made about him on the government’s billboards: they would not abolish the overheads cuts, they want real cuts (Márki-Zay did not elaborate on this in his five minutes), the 13th-month pension would not be taken away, but would be further increased on the basis of Swiss indexation, healthcare would not be made payable, on the contrary, by reducing waiting lists, fewer people would have to use payable services, he said.
For me, the most important thing is to raise my seven children as Hungarians, so that young people do not have to earn a living abroad,”
Márki-Zay said, adding that “young people should not have to go to Europe, but Europe should come here.”
He also referred to his achievements as mayor of Hódmezővásárhely, including the abolition of “the highest building tax in the country,” free bus transport, and the improvement of street lighting (Hódmezővásárhely was one of the cities hit by the Elios-scandal under Fidesz leadership).
The five-minute monologue, which ended with the slogan “Only upwards!”, was not interrupted by any questions from the presenter, who thanked him for his speech.
Before his appearance on the state-owned channel, Márki-Zay said that “M1, which operates with HUF 130 billion of public money a year, will provide a total of 5 minutes from 8 am for the seven organizations of United for Hungary to speak. As the list leader, I will try to use these five minutes wisely and tell the viewers of public television what they would not otherwise hear. Because propaganda hides it from them.”
According to the state media’s electoral office, it “continues to attach the utmost importance to equal opportunities, to ensure balanced and objective information for viewers and listeners on equal terms with the candidate organizations that put up lists in the elections.”
Márki-Zay has not missed a chance for some trolling. He also posted a picture on his Facebook page with a famous Hungarian cartoon character who has a statue in the MTVA’s building: the “TV Bear.” The bear comes on television to wish good night to children. The mayor wrote, “Let TV Bear and public TV belong to all of us again!” The TV Bear also had a blue ribbon pinned to his chest, a symbol of the unity and anti-corruption stance of the opposition parties.
Péter Márki-Zay’s full speech can be heard below:
Featured image: scene capture from the video above/YouTube
