Letters, posters and promises: campaigns targeting foreigners in Hungary amid the elections
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The European Parliament elections and municipal elections will take place on the same day this year in Hungary, on 9 June. Both campaigns are now in their final weeks, and the candidates are increasingly trying to mobilise their voter base and convince the undecided. Foreign citizens with a Hungarian address can also vote in local government elections, and campaigns try to convince them with various methods.
About 137,000 non-Hungarian EU citizens residing in Hungary, and 35,000 refugees and long-term residents can vote in the municipal elections on 9 June, as Index reported, and there have been several examples in recent weeks of the candidates trying to earn their votes as well.
Letter for Chinese citizens as part of the campaign?
According to the official data of the 2022 census, there are 98,319 foreign citizens living in Budapest, and roughly 15 percent of them are Chinese citizens. Thus, it is not a coincidence that they are the ones whose trust the candidates want to earn the most.
The Fidesz-KDNP coalition party seemingly didn’t want to leave it to chance and took the opportunity to introduce themselves in a letter. As Telex writes, a few days ago, a letter written in Chinese was published, which included, among other things, a photo of the party’s mayoral candidate, Alexandra Szentkirályi, as well as a ballot form filled out as a guide, on which the votes supporting Fidesz were marked with an X in advance.
In the first half of the letter, after a short introduction, Alexandra Szentkirályi talks about how Xi Jinping made a “historic” visit to the country not so long ago, and that friendship with the Chinese people has always been of special importance to Hungarians. She adds that since Fidesz has been the ruling party in Hungary, relations between the two countries have been improving continuously.
The ruling party has always welcomed Chinese friends and businessmen who come to the country, and this will continue to be important to Fidesz in the future. According to the mayoral candidate, citizens will be protected from criminals, public places will be kept clean, and the renovation of residential buildings will be supported.
It is the end of the Hungarian nation to allow foreigners to vote in your elections. Consider that there are over 1.5 billion Chinese and that China is clearly set on expanding their empire. It is the end of the Hungarian nation to allow foreigners to hold office at any level – this should be exclusive to Hungarians if you want to keep your country.
How is this possible? How a foreigner (like me) with no Hungarian nationality can vote on Hungarian matters? Did orban not say Hungary for the Hungarians? Can any explain this non sense?