The documentary The Price of the Vote released on the 26th of March alleges that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party is widely using intimidation and bribery to influence voters, writes BBC.
The film, which premiered on the 26th of March in a Budapest cinema and on YouTube, presents the results of a six-month investigation by independent filmmakers and journalists. In the film, voters, local leaders, former election officials and a police officer say that people were offered large sums of money and even drugs to vote for Fidesz. The authors estimate that 53 of Hungary’s 106 constituencies and about 600,000 voters were affected, accounting for as much as 10% of the expected voter turnout in the parliamentary elections on the 12th of April.
After 16 years of Fidesz in power, the latest polls show Orbán’s party trailing Péter Magyar’s center-right Tisza by at least that much. All of the constituencies where voter influence has occurred are rural or small-town communities where Fidesz has been the leading political force since 2010. The film depicts rural Hungary as a patchwork of impoverished villages, home to a large portion of the country’s large Roma minority.
Local mayors maintain an iron grip on daily life, providing jobs, firewood, transport to polling stations and, in one case, even access to healthcare, in return for demanding the “right” vote on election day. The BBC contacted government ministers, and the communications departments of the government, the Ministry of the Interior and the national police. By the time of publication, the only response had come from Tibor Navracsics, the Minister for Public Administration and Regional Development, who said the matter was for the Interior Ministry to look into. He declined to comment on the specific allegations made in the film.
In January, Orbán had gathered mayors and city councillors in Budapest
and told them that the situation was as follows: winning this election was their job: “The 2026 election will be decided by whether you get involved. If you do, we’ll win; if you don’t, we won’t.”
The film echoes Orbán’s statements in interviews with around 20 people from 14 Hungarian counties (19 in total). The scope of the practices and the similarities in the villages, which are separated by tens and hundreds of kilometers, led the filmmakers to conclude that the actions were planned by high-ranking Fidesz officials. One of the filmmakers, Aron Timar, told the BBC that they initially thought that the main thing in this process was vote buying, but it turned out that this was only the most visible part, and the main keywords were actually dependency and vulnerability.
A policeman, whose face and voice were changed in the film, said that the money was flowing in in significant amounts and with a significant number of supporters. He pointed out that he did not become a policeman to serve a corrupt system and help cover up illegalities.
In one village, the Fidesz mayor is also the county doctor, and his area of responsibility covers 32 settlements.
His patients said they feared they would not be able to get prescriptions for medicine if they did not vote for the mayor’s party.
Other people interviewed said that firewood was only given to those who voted for Fidesz. In another, a former candidate withdrew his candidacy after child protection services threatened to take away his children. The authorities did not want him to compete with a Fidesz candidate.
The day after the crew filmed in a village, the police arrived at the hotel and demanded to see the guest list. Timari told the BBC that he believed that most law enforcement officers in the country were honest people, and that it was not about the police. It was more about political influence on the police.
In cases where voters are offered money for their vote, the amount is usually around 50,000 to 60,000 forints (approximately 128 to 154 euros). This is a significant sum in communities where the allowance per child is usually around 30 to 50 euros per month.
The filmmakers emphasize that what is happening is much more than vote buying.
In previous elections, in some of the villages visited, 80 to 100% of voters voted for Fidesz. People interviewed in the film recounted activities such as organizing buses to polling stations, voters pretending to be illiterate to have an assistant join them at the polling booth, taking pictures of ballots to prove that they voted for Fidesz, and handing over already marked ballots to the next voter.
Reports of vote-buying in Hungarian elections have been made before, but usually on a smaller scale and without any suggestion that it would significantly change the outcome of the election.
A significant part of Hungary’s approximately 800,000 Roma live in deep poverty, and one of the most shocking revelations is the allegations by several interviewees that drugs, specifically crack cocaine, are also used to buy votes. It is a cheap and highly addictive synthetic drug that is widely used in the poorest villages. At the same time, the Fidesz-led government has created one of the strictest drug criminalization laws in Europe. Police reports show that drug use is widespread in poor villages. A single dose costs only about 1,500 forints, or just under four euros.
The film comes just over two weeks before parliamentary elections, and the campaign has been dogged by accusations of domestic and foreign plots to undermine a fair vote.Fidesz officials, including Orbán, have alleged that
the European Union and Ukraine are trying to prevent the prime minister from winning a fifth term.
Meanwhile, Tisza and independent media have pointed to possible Russian interference in support of Orbán, a long-standing Kremlin ally.
The Washington Post recently reported on a Russian foreign intelligence service offering to stage a mock attack on Orbán. The newspaper also reported on evidence that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has been using breaks in EU meetings to brief Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on what was being discussed.
Szijjártó initially condemned the newspaper’s report as fake news, but later stated that it was perfectly normal to consult with allies – he spoke with the Turkish, Serbian and Russian foreign ministers, as well as, if necessary, with colleagues from African, Chinese and South Asian countries, to promote cooperation that meets Hungary’s interests. The minister stressed that he would not abandon the country’s interests, even if there was very blatant interference by foreign intelligence services in the election process.
Read also: EU excludes Hungary from talks over concerns about information being leaked to Russians
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