Hungarian Party promises voters free beer (and eternal life)

Since the fall of the Iron Curtain more than two decades ago, the electorate in Hungary has grown accustomed – in the same way voters in many democratic countries have – to politicians making promises that often fail to materialize once the election is over.

This in turn has led to a growing disenchantment amongst Hungarian voters who see the political class as promising the world to get elected and then ignoring those campaign declarations once ballots have been cast. Much of the Hungarian populace’s heightened negative sentiment towards politicians stems from over four years of austerity measures as the country continues to attempt get its finances in order.

From this political disillusionment has arisen the MKKP, or the Two-Tailed Dog Party, started by artists and students in the southern city of Szeged in 2006, which is raising the bar as far as exaggerated campaign promises in Hungary are concerned. The party has begun to receive an ample share of headlines in the Hungarian media in recent days and a sympathetic ear in a population tired of witnessing its spending power steadily wane.

Among the promises on the party’s platform are building a metro line that would extend from Hungary’s eastern to western borders, placing a mountain in the Great Hungarian plain, setting up a Hungarian restaurant on Mars and eternal life (plus 20 years). Next to these grand plans, another of the party’s main objectives, eliminating taxes, seems relatively modest by comparison.

The party’s posters and billboards feature a two-tailed dog named Istvan Nagy. Istvan is the most common first name for men and Nagy is the most common surname in Hungary. With municipal elections slated for October 3, posters of Istvan have been sprouting up across Budapest. In them, the two-tailed canine has promised free beer, money for not working, and a 93 percent guarantee that the party will not steal funds from the public coffers if elected.

On August 10, the party held a press conference to introduce its candidates for the mayor of Budapest, Szeged and Erzsebetvaros, a district in central Budapest.

“We are maintaining our long-held promise of free beer for all Hungarians, including those who live outside of Hungary’s borders,” declared Gergo Kovacs, the party’s leader and candidate for mayor in Szeged, to members of the media. (The issue of Hungarians living in neighboring countries has consistently been a hot political topic within the Central European nation.)

Zsolt Victora, the party’s nominee for the mayor of Budapest, claims to have “14 diplomas”, a dig at an interim government which led Hungary from March 2009 to April 2010 and which was comprised largely of technocrats.

During the press conference Victora pledged that “passengers on the Budapest metro will be able to rid for free and, unlike the present system, the train inspectors will pay for the costs of a passenger’s ticket.”

“One of the top priorities of our administration will be to get rid of garbage. Under our leadership, there will be no garbage,” Victora added.

And, on the subject of the traffic problems which have plagued Budapest in recent years as increasing numbers of Hungarians have bought cars, MKKP has proposed creating a Venice-style canal along the city’s main ring road.

The MKKP’s tongue-and-cheek approach to politics has struck a chord with some voters. “Hungarian politicians would promise anything if they thought it would get them elected. It is great to see someone parodying what has become a ridiculous political process” said Andrea Kovacs, a 48-year-old teacher in Budapest.

The party’s message has also resonated with many Hungarian Facebook users who feel disenfranchised from the political process. Within the past weeks the MKKP’s Facebook page has received over 18,500 Likes. A recent post on the party’s Facebook feed advocated allowing more techno music in Parliament.

Much of the party’s manifesto is detailed on its website http://kutyopressz.blog.hu/ . One of the tenets of its economic policy would be to ship economist off the planet. On environmental protection, MKKP proposes replacing extinct species with new ones, cut carbon emissions in Azerbaijan and weather reform which would bring about mild summer days from 20-25 degrees Celsius and 99 more sunny days throughout the year. And the party would reform Hungary’s health care system by eliminating sickness.

As one of the party’s posters states, “we’ll promise anything.”