Hungary state TV hosts first election debate in nearly 20 years

Hungary’s public broadcaster — long accused of being a mouthpiece for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party — on Thursday (30 May) hosted its first election debate in nearly 20 years.

Candidates from 11 parties running for European Parliament elections faced off for nearly two hours on MTVA state television.

The last time Hungarian state media hosted an election debate was in 2006.

The event featured rare moments of criticism of Orbán and his government on state television, where coverage is usually almost always laudatory.

Since Orbán’s return to power in 2010, many independent media outlets in Hungary have either gone out of business or been bought by his business allies and turned into pro-Fidesz organs, while public media have been forced to toe the government line.

Thursday’s debate came about after Péter Magyar, a former government insider turned rising opposition leader, threatened to hold continuous demonstrations in front of the MTVA broadcaster headquarters unless it aired a debate ahead of EU elections next week.

Magyar criticised the eventual format — participants were limited to eight minutes of speaking time and all 11 parties running in the election participated, even those polling well below the five percent minimum electoral threshold.

He eventually agreed to participate but called on his supporters to demonstrate outside the venue in Budapest’s Castle Garden Baazar.

Several thousand heeded the call, watching the debate on a giant screen outside the capital’s landmark site on the banks of the Danube.

Bernadett, a 32-year-old office worker who would not give her surname, described it as “a sort of unfair debate for the sake of appearances”.

“But it’s also gratifying that at least something is finally happening”, she said.

Hanna, a 19-year-old student, found it both “strange” and “reassuring” to hear criticism of Orbán and his government on state media.

Read more with Euractiv