Attila Mesterhazy, former president of the Hungarian Socialist Party, shared a picture of a sign that appears to be an information board for an EU funded project along with the caption: “The joke here is that there is no joke.. And they are not ashamed”. The post was shared over 1800 times since its publication on November 7, 2023 before it was made unavailable to view.
Attila Mesterhazy, former president of the Hungarian Socialist Party, shared a picture of a sign that appears to be an information board for an EU funded project along with the caption: “The joke here is that there is no joke.. And they are not ashamed”. The post was shared over 1800 times since its publication on November 7, 2023 before it was made unavailable to view.
The picture shows the base of a metal structure, while the board reads: “Tree stand for hunters with no hunter”. The sign appears to say the structure was built using 134 million forint of EU subsidies.
Users commenting under Mesterhazy’s post voiced their outrage believing the sign was real. “This is Fidesz, doesn’t even try to keep up the pretence!!!” wrote one. “The money went into someone’s pocket here too! So easy to live on the people’s money!” wrote someone else.
The same picture was also shared by other Facebook users with comments implying that they thought it showed a real EU-funded project, for example here, here and here.
Satirical act
AFP searched Facebook for other instances using the text on the image. One of the results was a post by the Ujpest chapter of the satirical MKKP party, who are known for guerrilla actions and flash mobs. They also often renovate old bus stops or decorate abandoned or damaged infrastructure in a humorous way.
“There are a lot of problems that we can’t solve on our own — for example, the demolition of this 30-year-old, rotting billboard,” reads the Facebook post of the politician from the party’s local chapter.
“In such cases it is worth behaving like other parties: 1. Find something we can present as a success; 2. Inaugurate it with many politicians; 3. Then take a lot of selfies. That’s exactly what happened last night,” the post reads.
Dávid Nagy from MKKP Ujpest confirmed to AFP that his party put up the sign.
“It was an action to raise awareness about the billboard that has been rotting there for 30 years — but it [the sign] seems to have been too plausible,” Nagy wrote in an email on November 7, 2023.
The party even created a Facebook event for their action entitled: “Unveiling ceremony of the tree stand for hunters with no hunter”. It said the event would take place “near 25 Hajlo Street in Ujpest” and contained a high definition image of the graphic used for the sign.
The out of context picture spreading on social media clearly shows the same sign, albeit with some slight damage after being put up:
While the poster is identical in every other respect, down to the placement of the staples attaching it to the wooden pole behind, two stickers appear to have been added later. The sticker in the upper right is an MKKP one, it is the one bearing a QR code in this photo gallery shared by the party.
Another local chapter of MKKP reposted Mesterhazy’s misleading post with the comment: “Mesterhazy fell for David Nagy from MKKP Ujpest’s awareness-raising campaign, he thinks it’s a real EU project. Or he is intentionally playing dumb. I don’t know which is worse.”
The MKKP has parodied similar posters before, but those signs clearly included the party’s name.
No sign of similar EU project
Using the location provided in MKKP’s Facebook event, AFP managed to find the structure on Google Maps.
In Street View mode pictures of the structure can be found from as early as 2012. The metal structure looks old and rusted even on those images.
When compared to the image circulating on social media, it is clear that it is the same structure, with the same shape and discolouration:
AFP found no record of such a “tree stand for hunters with no hunter” in the online database of EU funded projects. The satirical sign mentions the Szechenyi 2020 programme but only three grants related to that programme can be found for the municipality of Ujpest in the relevant database. They have to do with local renovation and climate projects:
Furthermore the information signs for the Szechenyi 2020 project were regulated by law, as part of which they must include a project number. Such a number is missing from the parody sign.
Real criticism of Hungary’s EU spending
While the EU project in question is satire, there are real concerns about the way EU money is spent in Hungary.
According to the Transparency International watchdog, Hungary ranks among the most corrupt countries in the EU. AFP also reported in October 2022 that the European Commission had expressed concern about irregularities in tenders in Hungary and the fact that many tenders had only one bidder. The Commission also complained that conflicts of interest were not properly checked and that there is little legal action against suspected fraud.
In September 2022, the Commission proposed that the European Council should suspend 65% of the money Hungary receives under three EU programmes, amounting to roughly 7.5 billion euros, over corruption concerns. Even after a multi-stage negotiation process, the fate of the bulk of this money at the end of 2023 remains uncertain.
The EU’s anti-fraud office, OLAF, has on several occasions found anomalies in the way EU money is spent in Hungary, for example here and here.
OLAF also opened an investigation in 2023 into an EU-funded project in Hungary that gained infamy under the name “canopy walkway without a canopy”.
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