To bolster his hostile stance toward Ukraine, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban organized a nonbinding referendum on Ukraine's EU bid. He sees the result as a mandate to continue his anti-Ukraine policies.
The trunk of the car is opened. Inside, a tied and bound young man struggles theatrically.
Standing by the car is a woman. This is Alexandra Szentkiralyi, former government spokeswoman and now the best-known social media propagandist forHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Speaking to the camera, she says, "I don't think you'd like this kind of thing to happen to you. Because with the fastEU accession of Ukrainecome the organ dealers, the arms dealers, the drug dealers and the human traffickers."
The video, which was posted on Facebook and TikTok, is just 10 seconds long. People inHungaryhave been bombarded with content such as this for over two months now — not only online, but also on pro-government Hungarian television channels.
A steady stream of anti-Ukraine ads was also broadcast on the radio, and in public spaces, billboards featured grim and sinister-looking images ofUkrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
This was not simply another one of Orban's many hate campaigns; it was the first to target an entire country and declare it a "mafia state."
It was also the first Orban campaign to collectively dehumanize the citizens of a whole country and defame them as dangerous, merciless criminals. The campaign said Ukrainians were allegedly out to destroy Hungary by trading in people, human organs, drugs and arms, by flooding the market with genetically modified foods, and by taking jobs, income, pensions and health care from Hungarian citizens.
The objective of the consultation dubbed Voks 2025(Vote 2025) was that Hungarians would voice their opposition toUkrainejoining the EU.
Voting ended on Saturday. On Thursday, Orban himself announced the results just before theEU summit in Brussels, saying that 2.27 million Hungarians had taken part, which is about a third of the Hungarian electorate, and that 95% had voted against Ukraine joining the EU.
The prime minister said he had come to Brussels "with a strong mandate," adding that "with the voice of over 2 million Hungarians" he could say that he does not support Ukrainian EU accession.
As with all previous campaigns orchestrated by Orban — such as the oneagainst migrantsor the oneagainst George Soros, a US billionaire with Hungarian Jewish roots — it is not possible to verify whether this result is accurate. The Hungarian government did not permit independent monitoring of the voting process or an independent public vote count.
In a similar survey, recently organized by Hungary's largest opposition party, Tisza (Respect and Freedom), 58% declared their support for Ukraine joining the bloc.
Many responses in Hungary seem to indicate that a considerable proportion of the population saw the campaign as excessive, false, dishonest or a diversionary tactic.
Some videos — including the car trunk video featuring Szentkiralyi — have been used for hundreds of ironic or sarcastic memes on social media attacking the Orban system, its propaganda and the corruption scandals in which it is implicated.
Countless social media posts — including critical comments on Orban's Facebook andTikTokchannels — also show that many Hungarians find the prime minister'santi-Ukraine campaignmorally reprehensible and dishonest.
Just a few days ago, a group of 50 well-known academics, artists, writers, former politicians and high-ranking civil servants — including former Foreign Minister Geza Jeszenszky and former head of the National Bank Peter Akos Bod — published a "letter to the people of Ukraine" in which they condemned Orban's propaganda and declared their solidarity with Ukraine.
Despite such responses, it seems extremely unlikely that there will be a U-turn in the anti-Ukraine policy of Orban and his government.
It is also barely conceivable that Orban's power and propaganda apparatus will moderate its tone even a little, or stop peddling certain narratives — such as its claim that thewar crimes committed in Buchawere staged by the Ukrainian army.
The reason: Ukraine has already become a major issue in the campaign for the 2026 parliamentary election, set for next spring.
The ruling majority has alleged that the opposition Tisza party, which isway ahead of Orban's Fidesz party in the polls, is funded by Ukraine and Brussels. It has also claimed that Tisza's goal is to assume power in Hungary, sell out the country and plunge it into a war with Russia.
Government propaganda has regularly refered toPeter Magyar, the leader of Tisza, as "Ukraine Pete" and accused another well-known Tisza politician, former Hungarian Defense Forces Chief Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, of being a Ukrainian spy. It has not provided any evidence to back up this claim.
Pro-government media has even claimed that the Ukrainian salute "Slava Ukraini!" (Glory to Ukraine!) is being used as a Tisza party slogan.
With this policy, Orban has done irreparable damage to Hungarian–Ukrainian relations for as long as he remains in power.
President Zelenskyy and the Ukrainian government had previously made either no comment on Orban's policy, or only issued carefully worded, diplomatic statements. But this changed recently.
In hisfirst interview with a Hungarian media outlet, the independent conservative portal Valasz Online, Zelenskyy in early June criticized Orban's use of Ukraine for his election campaign.
"He does not understand that this will have much more serious and dangerous consequences: the radicalization of Hungarian society and its anti-Ukrainian sentiment," said Zelenskyy, adding that by not helping Ukraine, Orban is doing Russian President Vladimir Putin a favor, which is a "serious, historic mistake."
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also issued its firstexplicitly critical statementon Tuesday. In it, the ministry referred to the "manipulative intention" behind the Vote 2025 initiative, adding that during the campaign, which lasted several months, "Hungarian officials have been inventing nonexistent threats allegedly coming from Ukraine in order to unjustifiably intimidate Hungarian citizens."
The goal of this "anti-Ukraine hysteria, "it said, was to divert attention away from the failures of the government’s socioeconomic policy. However, the Ukrainian ministry said it was "confident that the overwhelming majority of Hungarian citizens are capable of recognizing this primitive manipulation."
This article was originally written in German.