The minds behind Fidesz’s hate campaign: how Soros became enemy No. 1

American political consultant George Birnhaum gave an extensive interview to a Swiss magazine about how he and Arthur Finkelstein created the perfect political propaganda, and basically made a global enemy of Hungarian-born U.S. business mogul György Soros for Fidesz’s campaign.

Fidesz has been using Soros for their political campaign for years. Now we know how it all started, who came up with the plan and how they executed it perfectly, influencing millions of voters in Hungary.

Everybody who visited Hungary in the last two years saw at least one “Stop Soros!” billboard somewhere next to the roads. The political propaganda created by Hungarian right-wing party Fidesz has made a major impact on society ever since it started in 2013 and reached its peak in 2017, 24.hu writes.

Fidesz was (and still is) sending the message that the Hungarian-born businessman György Soros wants to “attack our country”, and has some sort of “evil plan” against us. Political consultant George Birnhaum finally reveals how the whole idea behind this campaign came about.

The Finkelstein method

American political consultant Arthur Finkelstein believed that, when it comes to an election, it is best to pit the voters against each other with the help of fear.

A negative campaign, when one does not promote its own ideas but constantly attacks one’s opponent, can be extremely powerful. Finkelstein thought that the fate of an election is decided way before the actual election, and voters usually know way ahead who they are going to vote for. Thus, the aim is not to convince the voters to change their minds but to demotivate them, convince them not to vote at all.

The task is simple: pick someone you can constantly attack, try to project everything onto this person that the voters hate and think it is bad so that, ultimately, the voters lose their trust.

The concept of “the foreign capital” has also become the symbol of fear and disappointment in Hungary. Thus, Soros was the perfect target to make the enemy out of: he was born in Hungary but lives in the U.S., and he is also an extremely wealthy businessman (= dangerous foreign capital).