The incumbent Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán: There will be elections in Hungary on April 12th.Image: keystone
Orbán’s Fidesz is heating up the election campaign with AI videos and anti-Ukrainian messages. Critics see this as a distraction from Hungary’s actual problems.
April 3, 2026, 8:49 p.mApril 3, 2026, 8:49 p.m
Videos and targeted misinformation generated with artificial intelligence (AI): In the Hungarian parliamentary election campaign, long-term head of government Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party are relying entirely on anti-Ukrainian propaganda. Critics see this as an attempt to distract from the social and economic problems in the country, which, according to polls, make Orbán’s challenger Péter Magyar the favorite for the April 12 election.
“You are dangerous!” is emblazoned over a poster showing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and opposition leader Magyar side by side. And next to it is the call: “Let’s stop them! Only Fidesz!” Other posters show Orbán looking determined in front of the Hungarian flag with the slogan “Let’s fight the war together!”
“The election campaign rhetoric is deliberately painted in black and white – peace versus war,” says historian Csilla Fedinec from the Center for Social Sciences at Elte University to the French press agency “AFP”. “Ukraine is portrayed as a danger, the incumbent government as a guarantor of stability and rationality.”
Orbán blocks 90 billion loan
Since Russian oil deliveries to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Ukrainian territory, were stopped, tensions between the neighboring countries have increased. According to Kyiv, the pipeline was damaged in Russian attacks in late January. Budapest accuses the neighbor of deliberately delaying the necessary repair work. In order to build pressure, the Orbán government is blocking an EU aid loan for Ukraine amounting to 90 billion euros that has actually already been approved.
At the beginning of March, Hungarian anti-terror police arrested several Ukrainian bank employees who were accompanying a transport of cash and gold bars. When reporting on the incident, tabloids close to the ruling party Fidesz spread AI-generated images that significantly exaggerated the amount confiscated. In turn, an unusually large number of users responded to these images on the Facebook online service with non-Hungarian usernames without profile pictures or user information – typical signs of fake automated profiles.
Deepfakes for anti-Ukrainian sentiment
Experts also report Russian efforts to spread anti-Ukrainian sentiment in Hungary using fake news or deepfake videos packaged as newspaper articles. “We are observing an ongoing disinformation campaign to influence the election in Hungary, as was also the case in the elections in Moldova and Romania,” says the former head of the Hungarian cyber defense agency, Ferenc Fresz. The messages spread by Russian groups are “largely identical to the pro-government propaganda in Hungary, so they reinforce each other.”
Orbán relies on AI in his anti-Ukraine campaign.Image: keystone
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó rejects the accusation of Russian election interference as “fake news”. At the same time, Prime Minister Orbán is trying to portray his rival Péter Magyar from the opposition party Tisza as a puppet of Ukraine and the European Union. “We have to decide who will lead the next government – me or (Ukrainian President) Zelensky,” he shouted at a campaign event in Budapest two weeks ago.
At an opposition rally a few hours later, someone unfurled a Ukrainian flag, and government officials and pro-Orbán media quickly distributed photos of it. However, in less than 24 hours it was possible to identify the people holding the flag – they were members of the Fidesz youth organization.
The number of election billboards financed by taxpayers’ money has multiplied in Hungary in recent months. For example, you can see a computer-generated image in which Zelenskyj, together with opposition leader Magyar and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, throw money into a golden toilet.
According to political scientist Eszter Kovats from the University of Vienna, Orbán and his Fidesz are building their anti-Ukraine election campaign on the fear among the population that Hungary could be drawn into the Ukraine war. “Fidesz appeals to people’s basic need for security,” says Kovats. “The message is: ‘When everything collapses, trust in what you have.'” (fwa)