Solidarity with our member Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party

Our Hungarian observer member MKKP (Hungarian Two-tailed Dog Party) campaigned to run for the last Parliamentary elections the 12th of April. Despite their efforts and their previous elections’ results (2,6% in the 2019 European elections and 3,2% in 2022 national parliamentary elections) they have unfortunately not reached 1% of the votes. While any loss in elections is disappointing for the people behind any political party, not reaching 1% is particularly important for the Hungarian political context.

When running for elections, Hungarian political parties are given a budget for their political campaigns and infrastructure. Importantly, the law also states that in case of not reaching the threshold established, the party has to give back that budget.

While the law exist with the purpose of guaranteeing better transparency for non-legitimate parties, the consequence of such conditionality means that many people might decide not to run for elections in order to avoid such risk. Even though the fund availability for campaigning that the Hungarian law provides is extremely welcomed and needed, it has an unintended chilling effect for political people that would like to be more engaged in politics.

We are proud that MKKP continued their political work and ran for these elections. However, given the results, that means that now they are expected to pay back over 1,7 million Euros (686 million forints) for campaign funding.

So what’s next?

That is still unclear. The law has conditional phrasing and there’s no previous record of how this could look like. But there is the possibility that the soon-to-be-made resolution will give the MKKP 15 days to pay the amount into the State treasury. At the moment, MKKP is still waiting for a formal notice.

What is clear, however, is that even if the political party would have all the intention to comply with such notice, they do not have the resources to do so. Which is why they are running a crowdfunding campaign to collect the money they would owe. So far, MKKP has managed to collect 20% of the amount- which is a good start, but not nearly enough.

Unfortunately, if they don’t manage to crowdfund the amount, this might fall on the shoulders of the individual candidates.

Where we stand

European Pirates are in contact with our member’s candidates, and the people working behind the scenes, and are incredibly proud of their resilience. MKKP members and candidates continue to be adamant to build a better Hungary. Whether this is through MKKP or by founding a new party- their political work is not over.

We stand in support with our member and we hope for the best course of action so that they can continue building a better Hungary.