[1/3]A government billboard shows American philanthropist Alex Soros, son of Hungarian-American financier George Soros and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Budapest, Hungary, November 20, 2023. REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo Acquire Licensing Rights
BUDAPEST, Nov 20 (Reuters) – Hungary’s ruling party unveiled billboards vilifying European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen on Monday, the first time it has made her a personal target in a campaign similar to one against her predecessor that angered Brussels.
The billboards, erected overnight to launch a campaign for next June’s European parliamentary election, depict Von der Leyen alongside Alex Soros, the son of liberal Hungarian-born financier George Soros, a perennial target of hostility from Orban’s Fidesz Party.
The slogan reads: “Let’s not dance to their tunes”. Soros is Jewish and some critics view the central role he plays in Fidesz propaganda as evidence of anti-Semitism, which Fidesz strongly denies.
European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer said the billboards did not bother von der Leyen.
“I showed the pictures to the president. She did not bat an eyelid. Completely unfazed,” he said. “We know it is not the first time, it is probably not the last time. We have business to do. We have crises to manage, we have policies to implement.”
Similar billboards showing Von der Leyen’s predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker alongside the elder Soros drew a rebuke from Brussels in 2019. Fidesz took them down after the European Parliament’s main centre-right EPP group threatened to expel the Hungarian party. Fidesz left the EPP two years later.
Orban, whose government has been trying to unblock billions of euros in EU funds suspended by Brussels over Fidesz’s policies, said on Saturday that Hungary “must say no to the current Europe model built in Brussels”.
Hungary is expected to be a major focus of the next EU summit in mid-December, as the EU country most sympathetic to Russia and sceptical of plans to offer Ukraine a path to join the bloc, expected to be the summit’s top issue.
Orban sent out a survey on Friday to Hungarians asking whether the EU should allocate more funds to Ukraine or grant it membership.
Additional reporting by Jan Strupczewski in Brussels, Reporting by Krisztina Than
Editing by Peter Graff and Richard Chang
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
