Swedish media forced into explanations after campaign designed to discredit Hungary + video

Sweden is clearly doing its utmost to prevent Hungary from ratifying their NATO accession, PM Orban's Office Chief has said.

Fotó: Origo/Ladóczki BAlázs

After Hungary's attention was drawn to the teaching aid, the Swedish media tried to explain the educational video about Hungary, which is shown in schools in Sweden. On the basis of information from a reader in Sweden,  Mandiner reported earlier that a film entitled EU and Democracy is played to eighth-grade students in social studies class in the Scandinavian country. The school TV film, with a special lesson plan, has been used since 2019, the Hungarian newspaper reports. In the video, Marton Gulyas says

Since 2010, democracy in Hungary has been slowly becoming non-existent.

The following information accompanies the film: 

The EU was formed after the end of the Second World War, when the states wanted to keep the peace through economic and democratic cooperation... What happens when member states begin to violate democratic values? In Hungary, we meet Sara, who works at a university threatened with closure, and young people who talk about how their curricula have changed recently.

In the video, Sara Svensson, introduced as a CEU researcher, guides the viewers. The people speaking in the video include three female students and political activist Marton Gulyas, as well as Judith Sargentini and Guy Verhofstadt, who regularly criticize Hungary in Brussels. They all speak reprovingly about the national values, patriotism and the classical family model ​​represented by the Hungarian government.

A dramatic soundtrack accompanies what they say. The Hungarian government is not even given the opportunity to present its position, only a short excerpt is quoted from Viktor Orban's speech delivered in the European Parliament in the past. The ten-minute video evidently aims to create the impression that Hungarians uniformly hold an anti-Fidesz opinion.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is also attacked in the video. For example, pictures of a demonstration are shown with a placard the reads Stop Viktator.

 Magyar Nemzet also published an article on the video recently, pointing out that the narrator in the film says that the Hungarian government restricts freedom of the press and freedom of speech, and even bans gender studies by decree. That was enough, Viktor Orban has crossed all the limits, a former Swedish MEP says, commenting on the issue.

In answer to Mandiner's question at Wednesday's government briefing, Gergely Gulyas said if it is true that in Swedish public schools, they are showing videos attacking Hungary's democracy, then

Sweden is clearly doing its utmost to prevent Hungary  from ratifying their NATO accession.

The minister heading the PM's office called the video an insult to Hungary.

The educational film is obviously an accusation without any basis and an unjustified insult to Hungary, and if this is the case, I will suggest to group leader Mate Kocsis that we view it at the beginning of our parliamentary group meeting.

It is necessary for lawmakers to view the film, the minister added, so that they can see that the Swedes think that we do not have democracy and then decide whether they want to have this country in NATO. Stockholm applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war.

The Swedish left-wing weekly Flamman also looks at Hungarian-Swedish relations in an article, writing that the clip with Swedes criticizing Hungary is from an old film. The weekly added that a Hungarian Fidesz politician described it as a "shocking" attack on Hungary.  "Actions like this will definitely make negotiations more challenging," the Swedish paper quoted Balazs Orban, the Hungarian prime minister's political director, as saying in a post on X. 

How should we convince Hungarian MPs to back Sweden's NATO membership when our democracy is repeatedly questioned, insulting both our voters and the entire country? 

Balazs Orban asked.

‼️Shocking teaching video approved by the 🇸🇪#Swedish government attacking 🇭🇺#Hungary!

How should we convince Hungarian MPs to back Sweden's #NATO membership when our democracy is repeatedly questioned, insulting both our voters and the entire country?

Actions like this will… pic.twitter.com/atSYIkqNsi

— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) September 13, 2023

The Swedish weekly points out that the clip attracted the attention of the Mandiner newspaper, owned by the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), which is closely linked to the governing Fidesz party, on Tuesday. In its article, Flamman notes that the Hungarian newspaper has reviewed the video's content in detail and criticized the one-sided report on the country. "The clip has caused anger in Hungary and was touched on in a program on Hungarian public television during the evening," the Swedish paper writes, and explains that the series The EU in Focus was made ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections and has four parts.

The news portal also informs its readers that Hungary has been governed by Fidesz and the Christian Democrats (KDNP) for the past decade, writing that during Fidesz's governance, Hungary's government has been criticized for curtailing democracy in the country. The article also deals with the Central European Press and Media Foundation (KESMA), apparently because Mandiner was the first to draw attention to the Swedish educational film. The Swedish article says that KESMA owns five hundred media channels in the country - a figure that includes all local media in the country - and is formally independent of the government. However, all the channels KESMA controls are pro-government and are indirectly financed by the state through advertising revenues, the left-wing media adds in its article.

During Sweden's NATO accession process, Hungary and Turkey were the most skeptical about Sweden's admission  in the alliance, the Flamman weekly underlines.

Cover photo: Government press briefing in Hungary (Photo: Origo/Balazs Ladoczki)