Compass in the Noise
aHang Report 2024/1
Introduction
Half a Year - Half a Million People
When significant changes occur in Hungarian society and the political environment, we usually receive more feedback from our membership, and we also try to carefully evaluate our work. Looking at the period as a whole, roughly the past half year, what comes to mind is that as a national initiating and organizing force, we felt quite alone in the field. One of our activists described the turbulence around the elections as follows:
"...but you've been working on people for years, you're almost constantly on the front lines, if there is or will be change, it doesn't come out of nowhere."
I thought a lot about this sentence and tried to look at the last 6-8 months from this perspective. When every referendum initiative failed, we initiated an alternative education referendum, plowed through the country with our volunteers, and eventually, in just two short weeks, nearly 115,000 people voted for change in Hungarian education using their client gateway 1. We had barely announced the results of the vote when we decided to take the issue further and organize a counter-consultation against the government's national consultation. We wanted to show that we are even more numerous than this, and that a significant majority of Hungarians are fed up with government propaganda and want to deal with real issues.
Four hundred thousand. We didn't just collect four hundred thousand blank propaganda sheets. Four hundred thousand empty sheets mean four hundred thousand people. Four hundred thousand considerations, commitments, wills, cooperations, and actions. This multitude of individual acts formed a huge common symbol. It shaped the compass in the noise.
In these two interconnected campaigns, we really needed all our will, resources, and mobilization capabilities. The nearly 100 voting tents, roughly 800 consultation drop-off points, the central organizing of thousands of volunteers, the widespread national logistical tasks of the two campaigns all demanded very serious effort and discipline from us.
We arrived at the election period on the last waves of the counter-consultation. Even then, it seemed as if the most important actors, parties, politicians, and organizations fighting for change had not really switched to campaign mode. Outrageous events and national scandals followed one another, which did not bring consequences in domestic public life until the emergence and later strengthening of a new political actor that started from within and arrived in time.
aHang's election campaign, still in line with our internal compass role, strived to shape these consequences. With our activist organizing work in six counties and Budapest, and our multi-threaded online video campaign, we reached approximately 4 million voters in the two months before the elections, a reach that went far beyond the government-critical bubble and the urban intelligentsia.
As a national organizing force, we were perhaps lonely, but through our causes, actions, and campaigns, we were still able to remain compasses in this noise for an incredible multitude. Our membership gave us primary authorization and support for all these struggles, which further strengthened our faith and work in building our local groups, the aPonts (aPoints). The existing and emerging aPonts were central implementers of these initiatives, but they were also able to strengthen in handling local and county issues and problems. Outside of our supporting membership and our own circles, hundreds of groups, NGOs and businesses, many volunteer helpers, and on several occasions, parties also joined our campaigns, which we report on in detail in our semi-annual publication.
We not only want to provide a compass for change, but to set directions in a changing Hungary. We will focus on this in the coming period.
Carry on with us!
Máté Varga,
Executive Director, aHang
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1 public e-administration account.
Counter-Consultation
Counter-Consultation Campaign
In the second half of 2023, we carried out Hungary's first alternative referendum, in which nearly 115,000 people expressed their opinions on the most important issues in education. We wrote about the alternative referendum in detail in our previous report, which you can read HERE. This was necessary because the government was afraid to ask people about the state of Hungarian education, and they did everything to suppress those fighting for a referendum and reforms.
During the last days of the alternative referendum, Viktor Orbán announced that the government would launch another national consultation, this time on "protecting Hungarian sovereignty," by the end of 2023. While we were fighting to express our opinion - even if only in an alternative way - on one of the country's most serious problems, the state of education, the Prime Minister wanted to deploy another party propaganda tool organized from billions in public funds in the name of "social dialogue".
This prompted us to take a clear countermeasure. We wanted to show that we reject propaganda questions and wish to express our opinions on real issues! Therefore, when the 7YES (7IGEN) alternative referendum was concluded, we launched a counter-consultation campaign together with the United Student Front. Our goal was to collect 1 million empty or invalid national consultation forms.
In a short period of time, we organized over 800 drop-off points across the country where anyone could bring their own consultation forms or those they had collected. More than 600 private individuals volunteered to collect forms as drop-off points in their own houses, apartments, or mailboxes. Additionally, over 30 NGOs and trade unions, 9 opposition parties and movements, as well as nearly two dozen businesses and companies decided to join the collection effort.
We also provided an opportunity for those who didn't receive a letter from the government, or who had already thrown their consultation sheet away by the time they heard about our campaign, to join in: we created an online platform where people could declare, even without the physical forms at hand, that they didn't participate in the consultation and support our initiative.
During our campaign, which lasted until the end of January, nearly 400,000 people sent us their national consultation forms. Our goal was to collect one million forms, and we pulled out all the stops with a nationwide action unlike anything anyone had done before. We couldn't foresee all the difficulties and time requirements of this work, but in the end, we achieved a tremendous result. One of the largest movement and political collaborations of recent years was realized, with thousands of volunteers working together. Hundreds of thousands of us said no to the government's propaganda, and even took action against it. By the end of January, we had collected as many forms as the number of signatures required to initiate two referendums!
We turned the government's own toy against them, and showed that there are many of us who want to consult on real issues, such as the most important questions in education, instead of lies. Thus, we were able to continue our work with the mandate of 400,000 people, which was both an honor and a great responsibility. At our press conference marking the end of the counter-consultation campaign, we announced that we would begin a tour of the country with the collected forms in the first half of 2024.
Brussels
We Carried Out aHang's First Action Abroad
At the end of January, as our counter-consultation campaign was nearing its end, we went from the spark of an idea to packing 100,000 sheets of paper into a car and driving the four of us to Brussels from Budapest in just 96 hours. What happened exactly? The EU summit on February 1st was crucial: a decision was scheduled on a massive aid package for Ukraine, which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had previously threatened to veto.
As usual, Orbán referred to the results of the national consultation and 98% of Hungarians, further reinforcing the familiar narrative, while in reality only 18% of voters returned the current consultation. The Prime Minister eventually voted for the aid package, thereby acknowledging what we've been saying all along: the national consultation is just an empty propaganda tool.
We knew that all media attention would be focused on the summit, and we could use this with a well-timed action: if we appeared there, our counter-consultation campaign would be discussed in both domestic and international press.
For this reason, we spent the last weekend of January looking for accommodation and a car (that could fit 4-5 people and 100,000 consultation forms), brainstorming, talking to Brussels acquaintances and officials, drafting communication plans, speeches, press releases and invitations. Then on Tuesday, January 30th, we packed the car and set off in the early afternoon.
By Wednesday evening, everything was in place: we had a plan, location, and time for our press conference. But this lasted for a mere thirty minutes: it turned out that due to a farmers' protest, Brussels city center would be blocked by hundreds (eventually thousands) of tractors, so not even MEPs could hold public press conferences, and everyone was advised to stay home.
We scrapped the original plan and agreed to wake up early the next morning, check out the situation at Place de Luxembourg in front of the European Parliament, and decide which of the new plans to go with.
We were up at six in the morning, only to find our car gone. We learned from the municipal workers that we had parked illegally (apparently there was a sign at the other end of the street...). Since we were still on time, we went to Place du Luxembourg - every street was filled with tractors closely lined up. The sun hadn't risen yet, there was dark smoke on the square, straw bales and tires were burning, and, from time to time, sound grenades were exploding. It became clear that we wouldn't be able to hold a press conference here. We split up: two of us went to retrieve the car, while the other three went to find an alternative location for the press conference where we could unpack the forms, while also sending out a fresh invitation, giving statements to international media, and monitoring the news about the vote.
After a four-hour Kafkaesque ordeal and 328 euros lighter, we managed to get the car back. Meanwhile, we found a new location (according to the very first plan): Orbán's Brussels "headquarters", the 9 Rue de la Loi building Hungary bought for about 10 million euros. We arrived just 10 minutes after the planned start time, unloaded the forms, and held the press conference.
And the result? Dozens of domestic media appearances, two international interviews, our opinion piece on Euractiv's website, Brussels Times front page - all this while an EU summit was taking place in Brussels, and farmers paralyzed the city with thousands of tractors. We demonstrated - not only at home, but also abroad - that the national consultation is just an empty propaganda tool, and Viktor Orbán knows this perfectly well.
Roadshow
We Set Out on a Nationwide Tour With the Authorization of 400,000 People
At the conclusion of the counter-consultation campaign, we announced that in the first half of 2024, we would embark on a nationwide roadshow with the Unified Student Front and the National Common Will, to spread the news of our results from Pécs to Nyíregyháza, show people the jointly collected sheets, and initiate conversations about real local and national issues instead of propaganda. For this purpose, we acquired an old school bus, which we decorated with the face of Minister Antal Rogán and a "STOP Government Propaganda" sign. This is how we set out on our journey in February.
The aim of the nationwide tour was to discuss the national situation and state of education, propaganda, and characteristic local problems, challenges, and the most pressing local issues - in other words, those that actually affect residents. Additionally, everyone could view our vehicle filled with consultations, around which local actions were also organized at each stop.
Where did we go?
Our first stop was Szeged, where we held a roundtable discussion on child protection with invited experts and activists in connection with the Pardon scandal that had just erupted. After that, we headed to Debrecen, where we held a forum on the future of the city and car battery factories. From the Hajdú-Bihar county city, the bus rolled on to Miskolc, where the topic was local sustainability and a green cityscape.
Our next stop was Pécs, where we presented our documentary film covering the behind-the-scenes secrets of the 7YES alternative referendum and our counter-consultation campaign, followed by a forum on the state and challenges of education with invited experts.
From here, we returned to the eastern part of the country, with the counter-consultation school bus arriving in Nyíregyháza. In the county seat of Szabolcs, we explored and discussed the situation of the Hungarian press with those present. We concluded the event series in the Transdanubian town of Veszprém, where we discussed the topic of art and public life with invited artists.
We traveled more than 1100 kilometers, met and talked with thousands of people, learned countless local stories, while continuing to fuel the movement's fire that had ignited in the country following our campaign.
We concluded our nationwide tour with a large-scale action in Budapest. Together with about fifty activists, we covered the area in front of the Parliament building, approximately 2,000 square meters, with the previously collected invalid consultation forms. The action had a dual purpose. Firstly, to draw attention to the fact that billions in public funds are being used to finance party propaganda in Hungary, while they try to silence real issues as much as possible. Secondly, 'In defense of our sovereignty,' we also sent a message to Péter Szijjártó regarding the Russian hacker attack case that erupted in the spring, highlighting what truly endangers our sovereignty. In the middle of the spread-out consultation forms, we posed the question in Russian, in giant Cyrillic letters: 'Sovereignty?'.
News of our action spread very quickly throughout the entire domestic media, with dozens of articles, reports, and interviews covering how we wrapped Kossuth Square with consultation forms.
We held up a mirror to those in power, one that could be seen and heard from afar: we don't want any more of their mendacious propaganda!
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Public Life
Time Has Run Out for the System
Few of us would have thought at the beginning of 2024 that domestic politics would be turned upside down in the spring. On February 2, it became public that President Katalin Novák had granted presidential pardon to an accomplice who had covered up for the pedophile ex-director of a children's home in Bicske. The head of state found the former deputy director worthy of pardon, even though he:
- was aware that the director had molested several children;
- wrote a false testimony in the name of one of the children;
- wanted to have this false testimony signed by the affected child in his own office in the presence of the pedophile director;
- had been sentenced to 3 years and 4 months in prison in both first and second instance for all this.
When the case broke, we launched a protest petition, in which more than 22,000 of us demanded the president's resignation. On February 10, the president herself resigned from her position, as did Judit Varga, the then Minister of Justice, who had approved the presidential pardon as head of the ministry.
This case brought about the biggest political crisis for the government in recent years and highlighted that the government's decades-long narrative, Christian morality, and national sentiment are a total lie. It proved that no morals, no values actually matter when it comes to their own interests and people. It frames everything we have been experiencing for many years: there is only propaganda!
Despite the resignations and various attempts at whitewashing, one thing remains unclear to this day: who and why benefited from the pardon, and who made the final decision. We launched another petition titled "Come clean! Let it be revealed exactly what happened in the pardon case!" which tens of thousands of people joined within days.
Parallel to the pardon scandal, a new political actor emerged in the person of Péter Magyar (Judit Varga's ex-husband), who plowed up the domestic public sphere with his information exposing the NER (the government’s System of National Cooperation). He released an audio recording of his ex-wife, Judit Varga, talking about how Antal Rogán had asked the Prosecutor General's Office, led by Péter Polt, to alter evidence in the Völner-Schadl case, which they partially complied with, thus saving Antal Rogán and who knows who else.
Influencing the prosecutor's office is unacceptable in a democratically functioning country. In the petition launched on the SzabadaHang website, we clearly stated that this proved the government's guilt.
Then on May 16 came another scandal. Another case came to light, with internal documents proving that the Hungarian Foreign Ministry knew about earlier Russian cyberattacks against it, which they had called campaign lies two years ago. In an operation organized by Russian secret services against the ministry, tens of thousands of confidential documents, information, and personal data may have fallen into the hands of Russian hackers, and presumably immediately into the hands of the Russian state. Based on a leaked document, the Russians took everything they could.
After the news first broke, the foreign ministry called it all a campaign lie and denied everything. However, a leaked report prepared by the National Security Service clearly proves that an extraordinary Russian attack took place in Hungary - which actually really threatens our country's sovereignty - and that the foreign ministry was aware of this. According to the document presented by Balázs Kaufmann, a journalist at 444.hu, "more than 4,000 workstations and over 930 servers became unreliable, including the highest-privilege administrator accounts." We couldn't let this go without comment, and demanded the immediate resignation of Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, an immediate investigation into the case, and that the public be informed. Subsequently, we flooded the foreign minister's mailbox with thousands of emails, again calling for his resignation.
The past half-year has been extremely eventful. A series of political scandals erupted, and those in power unleashed a propaganda flood greater than ever before on the people. Even before the election campaign, we undertook to be a compass in the political noise. We sent dozens of letters weekly to our hundreds of thousands of members, informing them about developments in current affairs.
Elections
The Largest Election Mobilization Campaign We've Ever Done
Pardon scandal, demonstrations of unprecedented size, new political forces, Russian hacker attack... this is how we entered the 2024 election campaign. After the spring brought anything but the usual tepid political season, and for the first time two elections were being held simultaneously - the European Parliamentary and the municipal elections - it was clearly expected that there would be a bigger turnout than ever on 9 June. While Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party took tens of thousands to the streets across the country, the government covered everything with its war propaganda.
The aHang community carried out by far the largest mobilization in the domestic civil sector for the EU and municipal elections. A process has begun that at least foreshadows the chance of dismantling the current power - and the aHang community has had a huge role in this.
With our online content, we reached more than 4 million different voters. And in person, our activists conducted tens of thousands of individual conversations. Our message was simple: Don't vote for people of the current power, for anyone nominated or supported by the Fidesz-KDNP alliance. We did all this because the current power is not a system of cooperation, but of division, theft, brainwashing, and lies.
We didn't shy away from formulating strong messages, with humor and irony. We created a video series addressing young people, one focusing on positive messages, and one exposing the government's false messages:
aHang's local groups, the aPonts, mobilized non-stop, were out on the streets and squares, but also worked a lot in the online space. In Miskolc, they invited mayoral candidates for public conversations, while in Debrecen they thematized public discourse with local issues. In Budapest, and the counties of Nógrád, Csongrád-Csanád, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, and Békés, our activists set up stands, distributed flyers, and engaged in door knocking.
Even in the final moments, we were working to get as many people as possible to go out and vote, and to choose someone other than the current power. On the valasztas.ahang.hu website, we made available numerous tools that allowed anyone to mobilize their acquaintances with just a few clicks. We will further develop these tools in the future so that we can deploy them with even greater efficiency during the next elections.
We Are Getting Stronger
We Are Getting Stronger and Louder
In the past six months, the aHang team has grown with three new colleagues, whom we warmly welcome: Ágnes Szép-Magyar has worked as the coordinator of the aPont network since April, and since June, Luca Flóra Soltész has been strengthening the campaign team. In January, Eszter Békefi joined us as our Budapest coordinator, and thanks to her activities we started our activist organization in Budapest at the beginning of the year.
The Budapest aPont provided indispensable help in preparing and implementing the previously mentioned Kossuth Square action, processing about 2000 square meters of consultation sheets. In addition, as a forming group, members participate in meetings and aHang trainings to start independent campaigns and actions as soon as possible.
The Nógrád County aPont campaigns both in Pásztó and Bátonyterenye. Although the Margit Hospital in Pásztó has been renovated, fewer departments have been available in recent years: the institution is in decline and has become more of a nursing home or rehabilitation facility. The availability of specialist care is occasional and subject to appointment. Therefore, about a thousand people are already demanding that the number of specialist consultations should not be less than 3 times a week, while their daily duration should not be less than 6 hours.
In Bátonyterenye, the Sungeel plant repeatedly violated regulations related to operation and waste management. According to the official investigation, the concentration of nickel measured in the air exceeded the prescribed limit by two thousand times, but the concentration of cobalt and manganese was also many times higher than allowed, which can cause allergies, cardiovascular diseases, kidney diseases, and cancer. Therefore, the Nógrád County aPont, along with hundreds of residents, is asking in their petition to install authority-accredited measuring stations that are traceable by everyone, and to immediately close the plant if it exceeds the limits.
The Békés County aPont has taken up the problems of elderly care in Békéscsaba. Their petition focuses on two areas: nursing and care. Regarding the former, they are asking to expand the number of available residential places and provide professional training necessary for home nursing, so that those who need it can receive adequate care until the expansion of available places is achieved. In terms of care, they are asking for an increase in the number of caregivers and for the authorities to improve the quality of services provided, as there are large differences in this area.
In Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, aHang's activist community in Nyíregyháza is campaigning for the reopening of the Júlia Bath. The thermal bath closed two years ago and hasn't reopened since. In addition to personal and online signature collection, on June 1st, the local aPont also held a picnic and a candidate forum on the issue. Several individual candidates for the area and mayoral candidates participated and spoke, and the demonstrators clearly conveyed the message: the Júlia Bath must reopen!
In spring, the Debrecen aPont started campaigning for two goals. In many housing estates of the city, the condition of the buildings is deteriorating: the building stock of Fényes udvar is in particularly poor condition, apartment fires are frequent due to lack of renovation, and in some places, the walls are crumbling. Therefore, the Debrecen aPont and already more than a thousand people are asking the city leadership to start a comprehensive renovation program as soon as possible, which will provide livable and safe conditions for the city's residents.
The other Debrecen petition concerns transportation: although there are designated residential-recreation zones in the city, they need to be expanded to make roads and sidewalks safer for residents. Another huge problem is that drivers often don't observe speed limits in residential-recreation zones, so the petition also requests that the rules be enforced in designated areas.
aHang activists in Csongrád-Csanád County achieved a huge success: they prevented a forest from being cut down! The Diocese of Szeged-Csanád wanted to build a Catholic elementary and high school with a sports specialization in Szeged, but they chose a forest as the venue. The Szeged aPont launched a petitionin protest in January; organized a community forum; talked to many Szeged residents during street campaigning; and raised public awareness in other ways. In agreement with several Szeged organizations, they were preparing for further actions, but then came the good news: the diocese changed its mind and is planning to build the school and sports complex in a new location.
The drama department of the Horváth Mihály Grammar School (HMG) in Szentes was endangered when the school's principal terminated, without consultation, a more than 25-year-old cooperation agreement with an institution that had been helping the school with, among other things, joint programs, training sessions, teacher training, and free accommodation. Many of our excellent creators graduated from HMG, as well as actors including Róbert Alföldi, Sándor Gáspár, and Krisztián Nyáry. The goal of our Csongrád-Csanád County organization's petition is to ensure that the nationally renowned training can continue to operate in the same quality and system as before - for this reason, the local aHang group was also represented at the demonstration organized in front of the high school on June 25.
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Successes
Our Successes
Confessional Secrecy
Shortly after the pardon case, Mónika Dunai, a member of parliament from Fidesz, submitted a bill that would exempt church personnel from reporting crimes against children if they learn about them during confession. We immediately launched a petition and prepared for further actions to prevent this intolerable proposal. The larger government party acted quickly, with the parliamentary group stating that they do not support the change regarding confessional secrecy.
We Prevented the Transfer of Two Schools
The Gábor Dénes University wanted to take over the maintenance of the Tamási Áron Elementary School, High School and German Nationality High School in Budapest's 12th district from September 2024, which would have resulted in the school becoming fee-paying.
The school is an important part of the district's life, and in recent years, the district municipality and school district have carried out renovations and expansions worth one billion forints on its building complex - this property would have served a private institution in the future.
Thanks to the parents' cooperation and the petition launched by the Association for a Livable Hegyvidék, Gábor Dénes University backed out, so the school remained under state maintenance. We prevented district children from having to go elsewhere from 2025, and we didn't allow the maintainer and the university to carry out such a transformation announced at the last minute, only seemingly involving parents, students, and district citizens in the decision.
We achieved a similar success with the Veres Péter High School in Békásmegyer, which Milton Friedman University wanted to take over. The petition to protect the country's 4th best high school was signed by more than 6,000 people in just a few days. With this, we convinced the university to give up their intention!
These successes could not have happened without the stand taken by active, responsible people, and we, aHang, were also needed: our tools, recognition, reach, and our already six-year-long significant activity.
Mohács Service House Petition
At the beginning of the year, a petition was launched in Mohács to solve the water drainage of the parking lot and road at the service house in Mohács (5 Horváth K. St., former Felszabadulás housing estate). This area is situated lower than the surrounding ones, so rainwater accumulates here and makes it impassable and muddy for a long time. We managed to change this, and the great news is that construction work already began in May.
EP Lead Candidate Debate
Back in 2023, we launched a petition for a public debate between the European Parliament's lead candidates. In the 2024 elections, voters could choose from more lists than ever before, and all attention was focused on whether the state media would organize a debate, and if so, under what conditions - and who would participate.
In April, Péter Magyar invited Viktor Orbán and Ferenc Gyurcsány to a debate, in response to which Tamás Deutsch, the Fidesz EP list leader, announced that he was willing to sit down for a debate. Péter Magyar started setting conditions: he was willing to debate in the state television only. MTVA, the public media operator, first considered this blackmail, but then started organizing the debate anyway. Péter Magyar set more conditions, some of which were met.
Thanks to the great interest and civil society and political pressure, the EP lead candidate debate took place on public television in prime time on May 30th!
Closing Words
2026 Has Begun
In the past six months, Fidesz has sunk to unprecedented depths, achieving its worst result in history in the EP elections. Meanwhile, within months, a political movement has emerged and strengthened, achieving a 30% result in its first test almost from scratch, prompting traditional opposition parties to completely rethink their politics.
The system has cracked. Often only the capital or cities with county rights come into focus, but it's important to see that many medium and small-sized communities also voted for change in June, ending decades of Fidesz leadership.
2026 may seem far away, but we will soon find ourselves in the midst of another campaign. Let's have no doubt that the government will do everything to stay in power.
Before the elections, we undertook to help navigate the political noise as a compass. We are continuing this work, and we will keep striving to raise the profile of and amplify more real issues that really matter to people.
Today, more than half a million of us make up the aHang community. The success of our work depends on our ability to show strength together. In the lead up to 2026, we will do all this much louder and stronger, and we need everyone for this!
No parties, no oligarchs - just more than half a million people who have joined one of our campaigns. With your donation, you contribute to preserving our independence and achieving more success than ever before. Will you support our work?