How much money did FIDESZ spend on Facebook advertisements?

Campaigning is an important communication process for every political party to reach its supporters with every possible method: print media, commercials, and advertising on the biggest social media platforms.

Index reported that the Hungarian political party which spent the most money on Facebook advertisements was FIDESZ. The Hungarian Government put approximately 96 million HUF (277,000 EUR) into Facebook advertisements during this year’s local election in Budapest. This incredible sum of money can be compared to Momentum party’s costs on social media advertisements, which are “only” 28 million HUF (80,000 EUR).

FIDESZ targeted the generation of 18-year-olds and above, but the governmental party lost a sufficient amount of supporters in Budapest.

László Kövér, a representative of FIDESZ in the Hungarian Parliament, stated that the FB advertisements made the elections unfair because the algorithm did not allow the campaigns and ads FIDESZ made to appear on the page’s newsfeed. The heads of politicians from the opposition parties “jumped up” every minute on someone’s laptop or phone, so Kövér believed that it was forbidden for FIDESZ to enter Facebook. Money did not decide anything, though there are examples from the other side of this phenomenon. Gergely Karácsony, the winner of the local elections, spent less than 30 million HUF (86,000 EUR) on Facebook ads while István Tarlós did not post anything on his official site.

At the same time, money does not define success: Botond Sára spent nearly 4 million HUF (12,000 EUR) on ads but lost to András Pikó from the opposition.