It’s time to take the Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party seriously, after they managed to raise more than 15 million forints ($56,000) in just one week to publicize their idea of sabotaging the Orbán government’s looming anti-migrant and anti-EU referendum. Known in Hungarian as the Magyar Kétfarkú Kutya Párt (MKKP), the party which started off as grassroots satire of Hungarian politics, officially registered as a political party in 2014. Their 3,500 volunteers have now decided to play a very visible and active role in the campaign leading up to the Orbán government’s referendum scheduled for October 2nd. In stark contrast with the Hungarian Socialist Party, the Democratic Coalition and the Együtt (Together) party, the MKKP is calling on Hungarians not to boycott the referendum, but to cast an invalid vote by scribbling on their ballot. According to the MKKP’s rationale: “There is no such thing as a good answer to a stupid question, but we can still send a message to the powers that be.”
The logo of the Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán needs to convince at least 50% of eligible voters (or just over 4 million Hungarians) to cast a valid ballot in his anti-EU referendum. In other words, 4 million Hungarians must decide whether to vote yes or no to the following question: “Do you want the European Union to be able to prescribe the obligatory settlement of non-Hungarian citizens in Hungary, without the agreement of Parliament?” The Orbán government is leading the “no” campaign. There is no doubt that the “no” vote will win. The question is whether or not the government will be able to convince more than 50% of Hungarians to participate in the plebiscite, failing which it not only have no binding power, but it will be a political flop for Fidesz.
Hungarian opposition parties have not been especially successful in convincing their supporters to stay home–their messages and campaigns lack coordination. Some opposition supporters seem likely to vote with Mr. Orbán, thus against the “obligatory settlement” of migrants in Hungary by the EU, even though the very suggestion that the EU forces settlement of foreigners on member states, without input from the government representatives of these states, is nonsensical. Gábor Fodor’s tiny Hungarian Liberal Party is following the dubious strategy of calling its supporters to vote “yes” (thus against) Orbán, even though by doing this, the party is increases the chance that participation will rise above 50%. The Politics Can Be Different green party (Lehet Más a Politika– LMP) is suggesting that party supporters simply vote their conscience and is offering no other instruction to voters.
In this murky, convoluted world, the Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party offers the clearest message and they are getting ready to plaster the country with billboards and posters to this effect. The 15 million forints raised thus far is enough to put up 500 billboards and to print 100,000 additional posters. MKKP volunteers are preparing to sign contracts to place their billboards within then next week and 3,500 activists (who the party refers to as “passivists”) will be in charge of putting up the tens of thousands of smaller A4-size posters. Gergely Kovács, President of the MKKP, told the media that the party now has a national network of activists to coordinate the campaign. One of the campaign billboards, a spoof of government billboards, refers to the historic, 9th century Hungarian conquest of Central Europe. Hungarians came to the region from Asia and struck fear among Europeans. “Did you know that immigrants committed the Hungarian conquest too?”–reads the billboard.
A planned billboard–“Immigrants committed the Hungarian conquest as well!”
In addition to the billboards and posters, the MKKP is about to release a mobile app, which will give voters ideas and options on how they can disqualify their ballot.
When election officials offer public reports on turn-out every two to three hours on the day of voting, these will take into consideration all of the invalid or disqualified votes cast. But when the votes are tallied at the end of the evening, only valid votes will count towards the 50%+1 minimum participation threshold. As well, beyond listing the “yes” and “no” vote totals, the exact percentage of disqualified votes will also have to be included in the final results.
Popular news sites, such as Index and hvg.hu, are giving the MKKP campaign lots of free exposure and publicity. Based on the ease with which the party raised 15 million forints in under a week, it is safe to say that there are many Hungarians who are looking to make their voices heard on October 2nd, but in a creative way and one that is an appropriate response to the Orbán regime’s cynical and mendacious campaign.
“Tudta? A honfoglalást is bevándorlók követték el.”
És most akarsz egy újabb honfoglalást? Ez a mi honunk, nekik is van honuk amit honfoglaltak maguknak, éljenek ott vagy honfoglalják vissza a sajátjukat. Mi sem kaptuk ingyen a mi hazánkat, mi is harcoltunk a honunkért ezer éven át.
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“Did you know that immigrants committed the Hungarian conquest too?”
And do you want another conquest to be committed? This is our homeland as they also have their own which they conquered for themselves. Go live there or reconquer your very own. We also payed a high price for our own homeland, we fought for our homeland for thousand years, too.
I think Christopher Adam is just another journalist who will wright anything allowed from above just to get his paycheck ,with all his studies together, he still did not learn the most important of them all, common sense.
Thank God for the opposition! Please continue to Speak up MKKP & LMP
Tipikus amerikai libtardális “okfejtés”.
The only thing that is patently safe to say is that Hungary does not need migrants, particularly from the middle east. Unfortunately, this issue has become a powerful political tool for the party in power – it is playing a very cynical game of dice with self-determination. As a result, voters have little choice but to vote a resounding “NO” or the message will be lost on Brussels. This is not a time for protest votes regardless of your politics. This is about an existentialist threat to Hungary.
Brussels’ interest at this stage is to distribute the suffering arising from the failure of the immigration policies of the powerful EU states upon less affected members. “IT” is struggling for relevance and ultimately existence.
“though the very suggestion that the EU forces settlement of foreigners on member states, without input from the government representatives of these states, is nonsensical” – really? Is it also nonsensical that the EU plans to impose penalties on countries not accepting refugees? Are those fantasies drummed up by the cynical media? We must be consuming very different news, reading different histories, living in divergent galaxies, or experiencing a sordid combination of the aforementioned.
Youtube deletes app. 60 000 vids a day. Yet if one is good at it, can catch many of them before they are removed.
I saw a few being deleted (I cannot post now) that would make many writers and posters in e.g. Canada to think twice who will leave CA for Hungary and beg for a H passport after many years now.
Most of the deleted videos are not about the Islam threat but those vids that are awakening and can open the eyes of the RKM and Soros underlings. They are walking dead. Shocking vids. Lived for 5 minutes.