The campaign strategies of Hungary’s ruling right-wing party, Fidesz, which until recent elections held a two-thirds supermajority in parliament, have prominently featured a range of propaganda techniques. A significant focus had been placed on the ongoing war in Ukraine, for example, with the party employing fear-based messaging to suggest that only Prime Minister Viktor Orbán can safeguard Hungarian citizens from the potential spread of the conflict into Hungary.
This is the story of how one man outsmarted the mass propaganda project of the Fidesz party, which recently surrendered their parliamentary supermajority to the opposition party in the elections held on April 12.
Public outrage surrounding the Fidesz party, which focused on their mass propaganda, handling of EU relations, corruption, Russian affiliations, and various public scandals as shown below, ultimately led to the downfall of Viktor Orbán, the former prime minister of Hungary, with voter turnout approximating 80%.
The propaganda strategy
The inclusion of the Ukraine-Russia conflict in Fidesz’s campaign serves the strategic purpose of gaining the support of the diaspora, particularly given the presence of Hungarian communities in Ukraine that were separated from Hungary following World War I. These groups still possess voting rights in Hungarian elections.
To put this in terms of numbers, according to the most recent official Ukrainian census conducted in 2001, the Hungarian population in Transcarpathia was estimated at around 151,000 individuals. However, it is important to consider that emigration due to the war may have led to a decline in this number. In contrast to the decreasing population of these communities across the border, Fidesz’s propaganda maintained a heavy emphasis on the war.
The facts, meanwhile, paint a contrary political picture to what the propaganda is trying to depict, where the Hungarian diaspora, especially the minority in Ukraine, does not in fact play a crucial role in maintaining Orbán’s power. Still, the party continued to propagate the narrative that Hungarians, even those within the country’s borders, must be shielded from the neighboring conflict at all costs.
To instill a sense of urgency for voting for Fidesz, the ruling party’s strategy included the ‘dangers’ of the war spreading to Hungary, even in areas far removed from the frontlines. This tactic has positioned the Ukraine-Russia war as one of the central themes throughout the campaign season.
Toward the end of the campaign season, Fidesz encountered significant challenges due to a rapid increase in opposition support across the country. In response, the party shifted its propaganda tactics, focusing on disparaging the opposition rather than promoting its own agenda. Fidesz leveraged the existing fear towards Ukraine to suggest that the opposition is closely linked to the war efforts there, portraying them as complicit in escalating the conflict and thus utterly incapable of properly safeguarding Hungarian citizens from the war’s “repercussions.”
This strategy included allegations that members of the newly formed opposition are Ukrainian spies conspiring with Peter Magyar, the newly elected leader of Hungary. While this propaganda approach may have initially appeared to be a logical move as the campaign intensified, Fidesz’s attempts to overly manipulate this narrative led them to stumble on their own feet.
Where it went wrong
Here’s how that story unfolded: “To sum up, I believe that the HR officials assessed that they were dealing with a weak, easily manipulated young, inexperienced IT specialist who, under certain circumstances, had access privileges that they could obtain more cheaply than, say, through spyware, and that he would not resist the temptation; they had long since assessed this.” (Gundalf, 2026)
Recently, a young Hungarian IT specialist, identified in news reports as Gundalf, emerged in a secret service investigation related to a child pornography case and allegations of Ukrainian espionage. The National Bureau of Investigation searched his home on suspicion of crimes against children, with allegations of possessing child pornography materials. He had left the Tisza Party organization in 2025.
Following his departure, an unidentified individual under the alias Henry attempted to recruit him to act against the party. Police Captain Bence Szabó addressed the public concerned about these developments only recently, questioning the Fidesz’s concern that Gundalf maintains connections with Ukrainian intelligence services. Following the release of a recording from his official police hearing, we can now explore the reasons behind the allegations against a former opposition party member, as he challenges the propaganda narratives put forth by Fidesz.
In a recent interview with the Hungarian news outlet 444, Gundalf revealed his motivations for going public about his story related to his hearing only a week prior to the elections. He disclosed the following:
“That’s why I decided to go public, because when the Constitution Protection Office questioned me several times last fall, they informed me that everything said during the interrogation was classified as a state secret and that I couldn’t disclose any of it to anyone or talk about it with anyone, because that would be a criminal offense. However, with the national security report released on Tuesday, […], and with the interrogation video posted on Saturday, I believe they’ve completely disregarded this whole state secret thing, and either they don’t take it seriously themselves, or the whole thing was a lie intended to intimidate us.” (Gundalf, 2026)
He explained that following an initial house search that was meant to debunk his possession of child pornography, an individual identifying himself as Theo approached him, claiming to represent the bureaucratic agency tasked with overseeing his case. Before the call for a hearing had even become official, Theo had warned that a national agency would reach out to him for questioning.
This initial information about the hearing he had received led him to believe that these authorities (which are closely aligned with Fidesz) intended to use the entire process as a pretext operation against the Tisza Party. Gundalf stated that the intent behind attempting to extract information about him was to manipulate it afterwards in a way that would back up the Fidesz narrative asserting that the Tisza Party had connections to Ukrainian spies.
“What I’m telling the Constitution Protection Office is essentially a story designed to serve propaganda interests as much as possible. I wanted to construct a narrative for them that they could later release to the public—if they plan to do so—but I’ll be able to refute it,” Gundalf told 444 reporters.
In a strategic maneuver, the now national hero communicated numerous false statements and misinformation to the officers conducting the hearing, enabling him to later refute his claims and demonstrate that the proceedings were not grounded in factual evidence or aimed at uncovering the truth. Had the hearing been fact-based, the officers could have easily disproven his false assertions; instead, it appeared they were more focused on discrediting the Tisza Party through his case.
Following the hearing, various propaganda narratives emerged, alleging that during his employment with the opposition party, he underwent multiple forms of spy training, presumably receiving instruction from Ukrainian intelligence agents in Kyiv. However, by strategically introducing minor lies throughout his testimony while maintaining honesty regarding inquiries related to Ukrainian connections or intelligence activities, he effectively outsmarted the government and independently dismantled Fidesz’s propaganda efforts.
In response to this and other scandals, a total of 77.80 percent of eligible voters, or 5,856,515 individuals, had submitted their ballots by 6:30 PM during Sunday’s parliamentary election, as reported by the National Election Office (NVI). In the capital city, 80.96 percent of voters, or 1,271,446 people, had cast their votes by the same time. For context, turnout at 5:30 PM was 49.52 percent in the first round of the 1998 parliamentary election and 65.56 percent in 2002, which was the last time the Fidesz party was elected. This time, the Hungarian people did not let propaganda go unchecked and elected a new parliament in a united effort to combat corruption in the years ahead.
