Four days before the EP elections – if the parties consider the people seriously – then the ideas should be visible. The Policy Agenda made an analysis and examined how many parties of the eight participating at the elections were able to meet this minimum requirement and how much they ease the task of the people when reading the promises.
The Fidesz has no program this time either
From financial perspective the EP elections are not as good a business as the campaign for the Parliamentary elections. Now there is no state support if a group looking to be political was able to collect the minimum number of signatures required by law. This could be seen even when studying the intention to participate since only 11 parties tried to present a list and only 8 parties proved to be successful.
However 25% of the parties have no program along the lists, and among them there is the parties that can expect the highest number of votes. The Fidesz-KDNP – similarly to the parliamentary elections – did not assume any risk to announce a program for the EP elections.
The other party that did not publish his programme is the Haza nem eladó (The country is not for sale) movement. In their case it is difficult to tackle what their purpose is when getting into the European Parliament. Without a programme we are relying on their campaign movie, and it turns out from it that due to a last year’s demonstration last year the leaders of the party were indicted. Should they become representatives, they would avoid the legal consequences of that action.
Death penalty and the EU
The EP programme of the Allies of Mária Seres (SMS) is rather vague when presenting the party’s European ideas. At the same time their main message, the restoring of the death penalty does not feature among the presented ideas. Meaning that they try to obtain votes with an enticing demagogue message while it has nothing to do with the European Parliament.
The Jobbik has the longest programme among the parties that participate in the elections. However if we have a look at the material then a significant part is a historical review of the development of the European integration, and it is not a stand-alone professional programme. At programme level the Jobbik is criticising the EU but it does not take a stand for leaving it immediately.
The main message of the Jobbik is the protection of the land and the European salaries do appear in their campaign movie, too, that is not radical at all compared to that one of 5 years before. Meaning that neither the gendarmerie nor the iron fist – as symbols – does appear.
What about the left party?
Half of the parties participating in the elections are grasping a group of people with an identical system of values. The MSZP, LMP, Együtt-PM and DK are looking for the benevolence of those who are not for the government, are afraid of the radical rightists and are not criticising the European Union or they are moderate in this term. Maybe just for this reason, no party could bring along something surprising when considering the messages or the topics.
The most complex programme was announced by the LMP where the main message aims against the nuclear energy, aims for the protection of the land and visualises a European Code of Labour.
The Democratic Coalition (DK) has a programme of 16 points in which they are campaigning alone for a stronger European Union (United States of Europe) that is able to give answers to the Hungarian political problems. However the main message is not this, it is the “Europe does better” slogan which takes a hint at the Hungarian political life but the revealing of the message itself is difficult even with the DK’s campaign movie.
The Együtt-PM announced a manifesto before the elections. It contains assumptions that could have been realised only if they had been able to form a government and also contains the messages that fit to the EP elections. In their campaign movie they call for the protection of the European values addressing those who think these achievements are endangered by the current government. For them the current elections of this Sunday can also be a leftist pre-election („Who should renew the left”).
The campaign messages of the MSZP also got mixed from European and Hungarian perspectives. The issue of the food VAT is naturally a Hungarian issue, while the introduction of a European minimum salary is a real message at EU level.
The result of the Sunday’s EP elections is triple from Hungarian perspective. On one hand by lacking a campaign it is not sure whether the effect of the result of the parliamentary elections is sufficient for the Fidesz-KDNP to keep or increase its base. We get the answer regarding the Jobbik being not sure whether they can become the second force. This is questionable since in April it could be strong at settlements where usually the EP elections move less people. The third question aims at how the four leftist parties can divide the voters among them. Meaning whether they are able to be supported even in the small settlements. The programmes are not going to help since they still don’t have messages for the people living in small settlements.