Four lions escaped in Grimsby. A passer-by was attacked. (1991)

A general election will be held here in April. As someone who doesn't own a television, can't understand the language, can't vote, has only the most rudimentary understanding of Hungarian politics and absolutely no leverage, I concede that I'm not necessarily being targeted by the billboard advertising.

But, this is one aspect of the campaigning that I can't avoid - dreary political posters are all over the city. And, the posters aren't very striking. I can't remember one that didn't use a close up of somebody's face.

My favourite is SZDSZ’s. When I say favourite, I mean it's the one I like least, but is also the one that most makes me want to vote. They have used a six year old boy (named Kovacs Pisti) in all of their campaign posters. I've been told that SZDSZ say that they are the only people who care about him.
After I got over the surprise that Pisti was not in fact the SZDSZ candidate, I realised that for me Pisti’s pampered, home-tutored look undermines the whole campaign. He looks like he's modelling nappies, in spite of the fact that he is far too old to be wearing them.
Their slogan is something like

‘We don’t want to buy chocolate for Pisti, but we want to give Pisti the opportunity to buy chocolate for himself.’

Firstly, if I were Pisti, I’d prefer that SZDSZ just buy me the fucking chocolate, and secondly Pisti looks like he can get chocolate any time he wants. They should have picked a dirtier looking kid. Although they didn’t need to – the Hungarian public seem to be venting their frustration on his cheeky little face. I particularly admired the work of one artist, who covered him in thick, black marker and added the word ‘vampire’ to Pisti’s forehead.

MDF and MSZP are boringly basing their campaign posters around fat, middle aged men who may well be politicians.

Fidesz have taken pictures of Hungarian people looking depressed and stuck huge amounts of them up around the city. Fidesz are a biggish opposition party and these po-faced posters have been something of a success. Backed up by HARD HITTING statistics, they are pretty critical of the current state of the country. The colours probably help - grey, black, dark red, black, grey.

Apparently, this is the first time that negative advertising and underhand tactics (sabotage!) have really made their way into Hungarian campaigning. Fidesz tried it in 2002, but were widely criticised. It's nice - it makes me imagine sunnier times in this country, when old ladies’ scowly faces weren't plastered all over the subways, but posters were filled with rainbows, butterflies and snappy messages of support for the opposition.

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(Butterfly, butterfly). 'FIDESZ KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, BUT SO DO WE.' (Butterfly, butterfly with red, green and white wings.) MSZP
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(Rainbow) 'GIVING EVERYBODY THE OPPORTUNITY TO EAT CHOCOLATE. VOTE SZDSZ - BIG HEARTS.' (a picture of a big heart next to a picture of all the candidates splitting a Yorkie)
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'WE HOPE THAT WE CAN BE AS GOOD AS THE CURRENT PRIME MINISTER. GOD KNOWS, IT'S GOING TO BE DIFFICULT.' (Picture of the challenger shaking his head, butterfly, rainbow, butterfly, butterfly. Hungarian flag, the current prime minister's face, rainbow.) FIDESZ
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For example.