| This has been the craziest, most stressful election I have reported on in 40 years as a correspondent in close to 20 countries. Hungary’s governing Fidesz party has put all its eggs, as it were, in the Ukraine basket. "Don’t let Zelensky have the last laugh!" proclaim giant billboards plastered across the country. Another shows the Ukrainian leader holding out his hand for Hungarian taxpayers’ money.
That message is more sophisticated than it sounds, Zoltan Kiszelly, a political analyst from the government Szazadvég think tank, told me. Hidden in each reference to Ukraine is a sub-message to every Hungarian voter: "The Ukrainians threaten your income, your pension, your safety, your agriculture, your children and your grandchildren." At the start of March, things got even more dramatic. |
