European elections: Who's talking about the European elections?

The Hungarian parties have all but ignored European topics in campaigning for the European elections, writes the business paper Figyelő in its leading article: "The parties have succeeded in running their campaigns from start to finish without losing so much as a word over the EU. ... l grant you, recent weeks have shown that domestic issues have dominated campaigns in other countries as well. Nevertheless Hungary's provincialism was particularly striking. It remains a mystery to voters what Hungary hopes to achieve in the European Union. Admittedly, the same was true five years ago. But at least this time around the opposition could have called the government to account. ... Instead, the conservative opposition party Fidesz went to great pains to avoid saying what was really at stake here: the fate of the 22 Hungarian mandates in the European Parliament. Rather, Fidesz never stopped hammering the message home with its voters that the European elections provided the perfect opportunity for it to pronounce judgement on the [post-socialist] government."

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