Viktor Orban's Fidesz government in Hungary stands accused of mass voter intimidation in a film released on Thursday ahead of 12 April parliamentary elections, in which the ruling party is trailing in the opinion polls. The Price of the Vote documentary film, which aired on Thursday evening at a Budapest cinema and on YouTube, presents the results of a six-month investigation by independent filmmakers and reporters.
In the film, voters, mayors, former election officials and a police officer claim that large sums of money and even illegal drugs are being offered to pressure people to vote for Fidesz. Fifty-three of Hungary's 106 individual constituencies and up to 600,000 voters are targeted, the film alleges – potentially 10% of the expected turnout of six million.
After 16 years of Fidesz rule under Orban, most recent polls indicate that the party is trailing Peter Magyar's centre-right opposition party Tisza by at least that margin. All the constituencies involved are rural or small-town communities, increasingly dominated by Fidesz since 2010.
The film portrays a rural Hungary made up of a patchwork of poor villages, home especially to the country's large Roma minority, where local mayors allegedly exert an iron grip over daily lives, providing work, firewood, transport to polling stations, and even access to medicine in exchange for the 'correct' vote on election day.
The only official response so far has been from Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development Tibor Navracsics, who seemed to acknowledge the seriousness of the allegations but maintained that any wrongdoing should be investigated by the ministry of interior.
The documentary's release comes amid heightened political tensions and accusations of foreign interference in the elections, overshadowing Orban's attempts to secure a fifth consecutive term in power.
In the film, voters, mayors, former election officials and a police officer claim that large sums of money and even illegal drugs are being offered to pressure people to vote for Fidesz. Fifty-three of Hungary's 106 individual constituencies and up to 600,000 voters are targeted, the film alleges – potentially 10% of the expected turnout of six million.
After 16 years of Fidesz rule under Orban, most recent polls indicate that the party is trailing Peter Magyar's centre-right opposition party Tisza by at least that margin. All the constituencies involved are rural or small-town communities, increasingly dominated by Fidesz since 2010.
The film portrays a rural Hungary made up of a patchwork of poor villages, home especially to the country's large Roma minority, where local mayors allegedly exert an iron grip over daily lives, providing work, firewood, transport to polling stations, and even access to medicine in exchange for the 'correct' vote on election day.
The only official response so far has been from Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development Tibor Navracsics, who seemed to acknowledge the seriousness of the allegations but maintained that any wrongdoing should be investigated by the ministry of interior.
The documentary's release comes amid heightened political tensions and accusations of foreign interference in the elections, overshadowing Orban's attempts to secure a fifth consecutive term in power.
