In the summer, we took on an ambitious task—organizing a groundbreaking alternative referendum amidst authorities’ attempts to stifle public opinion on Hungarian education. Our latest publication unveils the unprecedented success of Hungary’s first national alternative referendum, accomplished in collaboration with the Hungarian United Student Front.

Over eight days, across 100+ locations and online, almost 115,000 people voted on seven crucial issues facing the Hungarian education system today. The outcome? A resounding victory! We demonstrated the kind of strength that, within a healthy system, has the potential to trigger a referendum at any moment. This strength unsettles those in power, who are increasingly forced to react – which means we now have the initiative.

Read our report on the 7YES alternative referendum here!

In the report, we explain in detail how we came up with the idea of an alternative referendum, and under what circumstances, in what amazing timeframes and against what headwinds we organised this unique initiative for Hungarian democracy.

We will not stop! We are launching a new campaign to collect 1,000,000 blank national consultation forms by the end of January to fight the government’s lies. We are showing that we want to have a say on real issues, not propaganda. You can find all the information about the counter-consultation on 7IGEN.hu (in Hungarian).

In February, more than 30,000 of us said ‘NO TO THIS’ unanimously, and now MOL, the Hungarian Oil and Gas Company, has finally backed down from its plan to drill a hydrocarbon well in the Őrség! They officially let the Vas County Government Office know that they did not want to go ahead with the deep drilling, and have therefore asked for the permit procedure to be completely terminated – and this has now been done with the following decision:

“Regarding the preliminary investigation procedure of the deepening of the hydrocarbon industrial deep drilling planned at the Őri-M-1 drilling site of MOL Őrség Hydrocarbon Ltd., I hereby terminate the procedure started under No. VA/AKF-KTO/242/2021, and continued under No. VA/KTHF-KTO/987/2021, at my authority.”

The aHang team visited Őriszentpéter, the planned location, twice: we talked to local residents, participated at a local forum, participated in an on-site filming by the 444 video crew, advertised the petition thanks to our donors, assisted with the production of an information leaflet by the locals, and helped make the petition reach more than 35,000 signatories.

But it wasn’t just our work: a rare and beautiful civil society collaboration was realized thanks to the signatories, the persistent professional work of the Guardians of Őrség Society formed of local residents, Greenpeace Hungary and the National Society of Conservationists – Friends of the Earth Hungary, as well as the 111 NGOs that joined them!

The cooperation has reached its goal: no drilling will take place on the outskirts of Őriszentpéter, only 400 meters from the inhabited area!

After learning about the recent good news, we also spoke to local residents: they breathed a sigh of relief and consider the developments to be a huge success. We rejoice with them, congratulate them from here, and thank them for their perseverance on behalf of the whole country!

But we still have one thing to do: we must stay alert. We will keep a watchful eye on MOL’s future actions so that they cannot further damage our environment either in the Őrség or elsewhere!

Balatonrendes is the smallest waterfront community on the shore of Lake Balaton, in the center of the Káli Basin World Heritage Area.

Rendesi Hill, situated less than 1 km from the waterfront, is home to many protected plant species. A landscape scar caused by the red sandstone mine operating here was planned to be restored by the mining company, which has an extraction license until 2026. The mining pit would have been filled up with construction waste.

We have prevented that!

For forty years, the pit would have been filled with construction debris, glass waste, concrete, concrete sludge, dredging waste and other waste classified as “non-hazardous” in an amount of up to 120 tons per day. The trucks transporting them would have made it impossible for local residents to rest and would have damaged the environment.

According to a previous government decision, the project would not even have required an environmental protection study to be approved, which is unacceptable!

There was no other way to stop the project than broad social cooperation, which is why the Association of Friends of Nature in Balatonrendes launched a petition on the szabad.4h4n9.ahang.hu website.

Their work has paid off!

Recently, government commissioner Tibor Navracsics promised that there would be no landfill established in the Balatonrendes mine. The representatives of the opposition and the ruling party agreed on the matter – we cannot harm our environment!

Teaching staffs, teachers’ vocational services, students, and student communities are standing up in support of the strike of educational workers one after the other. We, too, are supporting them with all our means!

They went on indefinite strike on March 16, and on the same day, we demonstrated with thousands of students on Kossuth Square. Anna and Máté, the organizers of the demonstration, were helped by the aHang team – on the one hand, in the preparations, and on the other hand, in things that require money (and not pocket money…), such as the stage, the sound system, or the purchase of a banner and visibility vests.

The demonstration was uplifting, its atmosphere surpassing every expectation: we chanted, we jumped, we applauded, we sang, we cheered the speakers.

In the late afternoon of the same day, student of pedagogy also took to the streets: they protested in front of the Ministry of Human Resources. On Friday, the activists of Amnesty International Hungary sat out on Kossuth square for a symbolic teaching day.

Then came Saturday, when the Democratic Trade Union of Teachers (PDSZ), the Trade Union of Teachers (PSZ), the Hungarian Union of Workers in the Chemical Industry, Energy Industry and Related Professions (VDSZ) and Tanítanék (“I Would Teach”) organized a large demonstration on Kossuth Square.

We supported the event with around 5.000.000 HUF, in part thanks to the support of aHang followers! We raised this amount (providing part of it from our budget) so that the organizers could use it for the strike and related actions, such as the demonstration on Saturday, so that everyone could hear the speeches with the help of professional sound and stage technology.

We are grateful to all supporters for making this possible! It is also thanks to them that there are more and more of us standing in solidarity with education workers. An increasing number of people are becoming aware that the situation is unsustainable: wages are unlivable and working conditions are getting worse.

Public education is not on the verge of collapse, but has already collapsed: a handful of communities are trying to save what can be saved, and in addition to trying to manage their costs, they are also making sure that our children learn not only from the core curriculum, but also about solidarity, partnership and standing up for causes.

Now, with their action, education workers are teaching and setting an example for all of us. And we have stood up in solidarity with them to show: we are learning from them and supporting them!

Thank them!

(Photo: Gabriella Csoszó / FreeDoc)

Worthy commemorations of our holidays and shared experiences related to them are necessary – this is something we have never disputed. However, it is possible to do so in a different, smarter, more environmentally friendly and humane way.

This is the third year we have protested against the government spending billions of forints from our money on fireworks. On July 18, 2020, we celebrated together that the government had refrained from using fireworks that pollute the environment and endanger animals – meeting the demands of the 130,000 people who protested on SzabadaHang by signing the related petition. Together with animal rights organizations, we also set an example of a wallet- and animal-friendly celebration: visitors to Szabadság Square in Budapest could enjoy a fire dance show and light painting.

This year, we started protesting again, and this campaign reached a milestone on August 27th. At the beginning of July, a petition was launched on the SzabadaHang website, in which we asked the government not to organize Europe’s largest fireworks display in the current economic situation. Already in the days following the launch of the petition, tens of thousands of people signed our demands and agreed that instead of such entertainment that tortures the environment and animals, there are alternative ways to commemorate the founding of the Hungarian state with pride and dignity, and it does not cost billions of forints.

It is incomprehensible why, with food prices rising, inflation increasing day by day, the forint depreciating and another economic, energy and social crisis looming, the government should decide to spend unprecedented amounts of money in a single day. During the campaign we organized several actions to make decision-makers see reason and, together with hundreds of thousands of signatories, convince them that a responsible government does not spend taxpayers’ money on fireworks in this kind of situation.

First, we took a walk on Margaret Island to ask passers-by what they thought about the government blowing billions of forints in a matter of thirty minutes. The consensus was that August 20 and the founding of the state are important, but in the current economic climate, the cost of fireworks should be spent on more important matters.

Following that, we visited Péter Ovádi, the Government Commissioner for Animal Welfare, in Veszprém during his consulting hours, to ask him, together with aHang members in Budapest and Veszprém, what he thinks about the August 20 fireworks and the protection of animals in this regard. We handed him the petition but received no substantive answers, only that he did not think the fireworks were a priority for animal welfare at the moment.

When the petition had more than 150,000 signatures and the government was under increasing pressure, Zoltán Kovács, Hungary’s Minister of State for Government Communication, reacted to the protest, calling it sheer political incitement. We then decided to demonstrate in front of the Hungarian Tourism Agency, which is supervised by Antal Rogán, head of the Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister, commonly referred to as Hungary’s propaganda ministry. The agency is responsible for organizing the series of programs on August 20.

On 3 August, along with our petition, we also handed the agency a series of questions asking how many bidders had successfully applied to host the fireworks, or what the costs would be if the event had to be cancelled due to bad weather conditions. During our action combined with a press conference, several signatories took the megaphone to say why they are against holding the fireworks.

Despite having sent our questions to the leaders of the tourism agency, Antal Rogán, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, they did not even care to give an answer to the then more than 180,000 protesting signatories.

Two weeks before August 20, we started a new action, and thanks to our supporters we were able to have thousands of stickers, posters and badges made, with which more than 150 activists covered the locations of the events and the fireworks happening that day in Budapest.

On the afternoon of August 20, the organizers cancelled the fireworks due to the weather forecast – but since there was no storm in the end, the heads of the Hungarian Meteorological Service were fired on the following Monday. The new date for the fireworks was set for 27 August, which meant that another hefty bill had to be paid in order to guard and secure the sites where the fireworks had been set up.

Even though more and more people were demanding that the government refrain from spending billions of euros after the fireworks could not be held on the day of founding of the state, the political-ideological reasons of the decision-makers proved to be stronger.

Finally, on 27 August, we went to the quayside in Budapest to show and make people aware that the fireworks are nothing but money burning. With community funding, we bought two projectors to send the message to decision-makers with a light show before and after the fireworks. Thousands of people watched the fireworks at Liberty Bridge and at Kossuth Square near the Prime Minister’s Office, so they all got our message.

With our campaign messages, we highlighted the hypocrisy of the government: while they are spending billions of forints on Europe’s largest fireworks display, they call on the public to save money. We received an overwhelmingly positive response to our screening action on the spot. Perhaps the nicest was when a passer-by said it was worth more than the whole fireworks display.

This year’s campaign ended up becoming the largest active petition in Hungary, with nearly 200,000 signatures, but the government did not back down. Even so, our campaign was not without outcomes, with many towns and cities cancelling their fireworks and deciding to use the money for social causes.

We will not stop and we will not give up! Over the next period we will be assessing the impact of fireworks on pets and how many of them have fled their homes; and with dozens of municipalities having called off the fireworks this year, we want to see these changes last.

We continue to argue that instead of toxic, polluting and animal-killing fireworks, we need to find an alternative that offers the opportunity to celebrate with pride and dignity.

https://simplebooklet.com/p

More than a thousand people took part in the Be the +1! campaign of Budapest Pride and aHang initiated to get more young people to vote in the elections.

Around 20% of the 18-30-year-old generation don’t vote, so our aim was to increase the voter turnout among them. Our research before launching the campaign proved that young people are well-informed and interested in public affairs, but they don’t believe that anyone represents their interests.

Therefore, the campaign’s aim was to demonstrate that even the smallest actions can have an impact on ourselves, other people or the environment.

Our website offered challenges and points for completing them, which could be redeemed for valuable gifts.

The challenges were organised around five themes: environmental protection, health, culture, LGBTQ rights and Roma equality. Each theme was represented by an ambassador and involved a live online quiz.

The most popular theme of the campaign was clearly environmental protection. More than 100 people went shopping with canvas bags instead of plastic bags, and almost as many had a meatless Monday as a challenge. There was also a strong focus on mental health: the third most popular challenge was completing an art therapy exercise.

We also organised several activities to show that active citizenship is a real community experience. The UCCU Foundation, which promotes dialogue between Roma and non-Roma youth, organised a guided walk in the 8th district, where participants learned about the district as well as Roma history and culture. We also organised an election pre-party, where participants could take part in an art therapy session, documentary screening, a roundtable discussion on minority representation in Hungarian motion picture, a techno party and other activities.

In order to reframe the word ‘politics,’ we made videos with our ambassadors and other well-known people about their first vote and what politics means to them.

What else have we achieved?

We reached our target audience in social media at an outstanding rate: 82% of our ads were seen by 18-35 year olds. Most importantly, we convinced 12% of those who were familiar with the campaign to vote. They solely did this because of the Be the +1! campaign. And a further 47% were confirmed to go out and vote.

The ‘Másállapotot a szülészetben’ movement launched their petition for respectful, supportive and evidence-based obstetric care. The ‘Woman is Our Voice / Our voice is growing’ campaign started with a demonstration last Autumn, followed by various actions. The aHang team is proud to be part of the campaign.

There is an urgent need for a change of mindset in obstetric care in Hungary: the current system is based on outdated practices, unsafe, and does not serve the interests of families and healthcare workers.

Although there are progressive and up-to-date policies and recommendations, in reality many women experience humiliation, neglect, loss of control and violence.

Harmful and rarely justified practices are way too common. For example, the Cesarean delivery rate in Hungary is around 40%, whereas the ideal rate would be around 10% according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Even nowadays, mothers and babies are sometimes separated in the hospital. Shaving the pubic hair, having an enema before labour and episiotomy are routinely carried out.

Some of the problems could be solved by the parliament by changing financial rules. Homebirth is not covered by social security, and hospitals have a financial interest in Cesarean delivery, as they get more money for operations and the nights spent in the hospital by patients are also increased (as a consequence, hospitals advise against outpatient childbirth, too).

The ‘Másállapotot a szülészetben’ movement and aHang are fighting for systemic change in obstetric care. For the well-being of individuals, families and the whole society, a positive birth experience is essential.

The aHang team attended the previous demonstration for supportive and evidence-based obstetric care, where we shot a video. Watch it with English subtitles here:

So far, more than 10,000 people have signed the petition on our site, and the number keeps growing. We have also helped spread word of the campaign through videos (in Hungarian) and social media posts and will continue to do so, because we strongly believe that women deserve attention in all circumstances.

A contractor planned to build a luxury residential park-monster in the small, lakeside town of Balatonvilágos. [1] While the news spread only recently, it seems that everything had been settled in advance. The project was classified as crucial for the national economy. This meant that the contractor did not have to comply with any local construction regulation in the case of the nearly 23-meter-high complex planned to be installed directly on the shore. This would have also meant the destruction of the promenade and the free beach.

But we prevented this from happening! The site is no longer classified as crucial for the national economy; thus, the standard construction regulations apply. [2] Although the building permit is still valid, we have now broken through the biggest obstacle. This was accomplished thanks to the more than ten thousand people who signed the petition of the Aliga Bath Association (Aligai Fürdőegyesület) ; their joint action brought this success. We consulted with the association leaders even at the beginning of this week about how to initiate talks to have our voices heard on the highest levels. We were planning to organizes a meme-competition and proposed other ideas about how to include the most people to pressure the decision-makers.

Then, two days ago, Mihály Witzmann, the Fidesz MP responsible for this field, issued the following statement. ’Many people turned to me during the week regarding the concrete monster planned to be constructed on the shore in Balatonvilágos. (…) I think that the project in question is excessive and does not fit in the landscape in multiple respects. Construction on the Balaton shore is highly objectionable. I will do my best to ensure that the concrete monster shown in the plans cannot be built in this form in Balatonvilágos.’

The MP’s stance against the project was an important step on the road to victory. But it was also necessary for us to raise our voices regarding this issue. It is also essential in other cases to speak up to force our elected representatives to take the public interest into account instead of the party-line.

However, for us to continue our work, we also need your support. Being a member of the civil society is a responsibility, often a financial one too.

We would like to ask you to support theVoice (aHang) if you can afford it, even with a donation as small as the price of a beach ball. This is the key to securing the future of our organization so that we can achieve similar successes in other towns around Lake Balaton and everywhere else in the country: https://tamogass.4h4n9.ahang.hu

[1] https://www.balatontipp.hu/balatoni_hirek/balatonvilagos-elojateknak-egy-92-lakasos-tarsashaz-a-club-aliga-szomszedsagaban/
[2] https://magyarnarancs.hu/kismagyarorszag/visszavonta-a-miniszterelnokseg-a-balatonaligai-lakoparkszorny-epitesi-engedelyet-237104