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Hungary's ruling party unveiled billboards vilifying European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on Monday (20 November), the first time it has made her a personal target in a campaign similar to one against her predecessor that angered Brussels.
The billboards, erected overnight to launch a campaign for next June's European parliamentary election, depict Von der Leyen alongside Alex Soros, the son of liberal Hungarian-born financier George Soros, a perennial target of hostility from Orbán's Fidesz Party.
Remember Orbán's billboard campaign denigrating George Soros and Jean-Claude Juncker?
— Yasmina (@yasminalombaert) November 19, 2023
In a 2.0 version poster campaign, the Hungarian government depicts Ursula von der Leyen next to Alex Soros, the son of the well-known philanthropist George Soros, who has long been an object of… pic.twitter.com/WkFNuUAOpp
The text reads: "Let's not dance to their tunes". Soros is Jewish and some critics view the central role he plays in Fidesz propaganda as evidence of anti-Semitism, which Fidesz strongly denies.
Similar billboards showing Von der Leyen's predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker alongside the elder Soros drew a rebuke from Brussels in 2019. Fidesz took them down after the European Parliament's main centre-right EPP group threatened to expel the Hungarian party. Fidesz left the EPP two years later.
Orbán, whose government has been trying to unblock billions of euros in EU funds suspended by Brussels over Fidesz's policies, said on Saturday that Hungary "must say no to the current Europe model built in Brussels".
Hungary is expected to be a major focus of the next EU summit in mid-December, as the EU country most sympathetic to Russia and sceptical of plans to offer Ukraine a path to join the bloc, expected to be the summit's top issue.
The Hungarian government on Friday a “national consultation” billed as “protecting” the country against alleged European Union policies, including war-torn Ukraine’s potential membership of the bloc.https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/news/hungary-launches-new-anti-eu-consultation/
One question on the survey claims “Brussels wants to establish migrant ghettos” in Hungary.
Another says “grants from Brussels to Palestinian organisations have also reached Hamas”.
Neither of these allegations are proven.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
