In the past period, Péter Magyar has shown that the rural population can also be mobilized. The founder of Political Capital believes that Magyar is a unique combination of celebrity and politician who uses Fidesz symbols and speech.
Photo: Péter Magyar / Internet
After his visit to Békés county, Péter Magyar also visited the settlements of Baranya and Tolna counties, broadcasting every moment of the campaign live on his Facebook page.
During his tour of the country, he achieved a success that had not been achieved by opposition parties for a long time: he attracted large crowds in the countryside.
The politician, who appeared on the political scene barely three months ago, is now referred to as the leader of one of the largest opposition forces, and according to the Iránytű survey, the TISZA Party is currently the most popular opposition party. At the same time, Magyar compiled a list of candidates for the EP elections with record speed, which is enviable for any party in terms of education, language skills and professional training. He spoke with Zoltán Somogyi, the founder of Political Capital, about the political developments in Hungary:
For a long time, we have been hearing from the official opposition forces that it is not worth going to the countryside. Propaganda has invaded the countryside, there is no opportunity there.
In comparison, someone comes along who turns this whole thing upside down and says, come on, let’s go to the countryside. And yes, the countryside is interested in politics, there are opposition people there, yes, people can be activated.
This is very interesting in the Péter Magyar phenomenon, as it shows that it is indeed possible to politicize in this way. He uses different marketing elements and marketing techniques so well that it can be concluded that he is doing the campaign with a professional, well-prepared team.
– declared Somogyi, then continued:
It has its own characteristics. For example, the insider. The fact that he comes from the inside and knows this world he is talking about, and this verifies his every sentence, that he was there, and is there, and heard and saw the events. This is a fundamentally different dimension than that of the opposition parties, who can say things, but what they say may not be authentic. If, for example, any member of the opposition had said that Máté Kocsis and Dóra Dúró consult with each other on a weekly basis, it would only have been said in the context of someone who has no idea about it, only accusing the government, and the self-proclaimed opposition. a politician cooperating with the government. However, with Péter Magyar saying this, whether it is true or not, whether Máté Kocsis and Dóra Dúró agree with each other or not, he can say it with authenticity. After all, he comes from there, he comes from that world, he has memories of it, he has stories about it, so he is much more likely to believe what he claims and says about things related to the government.
He authenticates all this by saying that he was there, lived in it, was in it, and this is a very great strength that he has and the opposition does not have. When Ákos Hadházy comes forward by publishing “disappointing” photos of Péter Magyar, that last year he was at some joint party with the Prime Minister’s wife and the president of MOL, he does not understand that this is precisely the strength of Péter Magyar, that he was there and from there came. Not only can you not criticize this, but this is what gives people hope that the enemy, the devil, can be defeated only by those who know his techniques and how he works. And Péter Magyar has it in him.
In addition, Hungarian is a very strange mixture of the celebrity and the politician.
We have seen this type of phenomenon a long time ago, that someone would take criticism against him in this way. On the one hand, it builds from it. He says, well, you put up posters, you spent many tens of hundreds of millions of forints on me, then we use this, as in aikido, where we use the other’s energy and strength for defense. Let’s transform it into our strength and our energy. Are you accusing me of my sunglasses being feminine? Well then I’ll auction off my sunglasses! You can bid on it for days. If you get any kind of attack, from anywhere, it’s very easy to fight back. If someone attacks him from the government side, he says that the billionaire is on the other side. It doesn’t cut corners, it puts it all in one simple package. Those who have become billionaires from state funds are trying to silence him. And this one single message is exactly enough for his followers, his camp, and the opposition to see every attack against him as, yes, they are obviously attacking him because he is dangerous, and we need a politician who is dangerous.
They have had enough of the soft opposition, which has not brought any results every four years, and finally there is someone who is not soft, but hard, and they are obviously attacking him because he is dangerous. “Well, this is good, we need this,” say a large part of the opposition voters.
According to the expert, Péter Magyar copies many samples.
You can feel the pattern from many different places. Whether we look at Trump’s campaign in America, he took it from there, but if we look at the campaigns of Fidesz, he fights back with the same means of this extremely simple, dumbed-down, primitive campaign.
He gives an extremely simple, dumbed-down, primitive answer to the attacks against him and the situation of the country, which is why he became a politician, but he formulates very simple messages about his own family case or the pardon case as well.
In addition, it uses the visual elements that are taught as a technique in political marketing, and in marketing in general. See, for example, the flatbed car, painted red-white-green. It adopts its symbol system from Fidesz. Until now, Fidesz has said how national he is. Péter Magyar adopts these symbols and most naturally sets up the government as the enemy of the Hungarian people, against whom he wants to achieve a change of government in the interests of the Hungarians.
So it operates in exactly the same area as Fidesz. If I were Fidesz, I would not be so calm that they would benefit from this.
Now Fidesz says that Péter Magyar only harms the opposition. I don’t see that from the numbers either, but it doesn’t follow from the policy itself either.
He also touched on why different researches publish different figures regarding the TISZA party.
On the one hand, the opinion polls in Hungary are not conducted in the most professional manner. Research could be done more professionally than this. In Germany, research institutes usually argue between decimal numbers, and in Hungary the possibility of deception is of the order of half a million voters. I say all this because the head of one research institute taught me research methodology at the university for three years and he did it excellently, and I also know the head of the other one very well. So I don’t assume any bad intentions from them. There is only one thing, that there is so little money for public opinion polls in Hungary that no one dares to operate a very professionally structured public opinion polling company, so in some ways we are forced to perform blind flights. After all, they make it a matter of faith to accept, for example, which of the two most recent researches.
So the opposition can find a research institute that they can accept, and the pro-government can find another.
The selection of the election team was made through a public tender, which proved to be an unusual but effective method. Among the applicants, it was quickly possible to select highly qualified candidates with strong communication skills, who were convincing even in their first introduction. How could Péter Magyar succeed in this? Somogyi has the answer to this too:
I can easily imagine the part of people applying, because a lot of people apply for such a situation. But the time was very short, so it is very difficult for me to imagine how it is possible to process so many applications in such a short time? The fault lies in the fact that there was certainly no time to process the submitted applications en masse.
Compared to this, the introductory videos turned out really well. Obviously, to be able to apply and get into the European Parliament through a tender is a very good marketing technique, but at the same time, let’s face it, it is also extremely populist. But how is it that he specifically says that he is trying to join the European People’s Party? The European People’s Party is still a political community. He faced impressive candidates, but are they proven people? Those who have not been involved in politics so far, how can they do politics, do they understand political activity? It is also worth starting a little lower. Of course, at the same time, this political solution looks fantastic. Not bad at all for a message.
András Somogyi also added that if they had already selected 5-10 suitable candidates in advance, whose videos had been prepared in advance, then they deceived the others while using a brilliant political marketing strategy.
If the real candidates were already known and were successful because they had proven themselves in some area or were more closely connected to the party than we first thought, then this was a sophisticated and effective maneuver.
The whole system says that Fidesz must face professionals!
Source: i love Hungary
