The Fidesz candidate campaigned unlawfully by handing out laptops purchased from EU funds – but she doesn’t have to pay a fine
February 23. 2022. – 02:17 PM
The election committee found that it was unlawful for the Fidesz candidate to hand out laptops at a high school in her district, which were purchased within a state programme. Even though she did this within the campaign period, she was not fined, but simply told to refrain from further infringements. Translation by Andrea Horváth Kávai.
As it has been previously reported, in a number of schools in Hungary, Fidesz parliamentary candidates were the ones who handed out the laptops purchased as part of a government programme. Eszter Vitályos is State Secretary at the Ministry of Human Resources, (Emberi Erőforrások Minisztériuma or EMMI) as well as Fidesz’s candidate in Szentendre. She was the one, who a week ago personally handed out 238 laptops (purchased by EMMI with EU funds) at Móricz Zsigmond high school in Szentendre. The Fidesz politician posted 9 photos about this on her official Facebook page, and the Hungarian state news agency, MTI also reported about it.
It was the opposition party, Momentum who submitted a complaint against Eszter Vitályos because of this to the Election Committee of constituency no. 3 of Pest county. According to the committee’s Tuesday decision, even though the politician officially appeared in the capacity of State Secretary, the Fidesz candidate’s appearance at the school is considered campaign activity, since the election campaign is ongoing. On this basis it was established, that:
- Vitályos violated the principle of good faith and proper administration of the electoral process
- equal opportunities may have been compromised, as the Fidesz-member State Secretary had an advantage in this appearance which is not available to other candidates
However, in spite of these findings, the committee did not consider it justified to impose a fine for violating the election campaign rules. The decision merely stated the fact of the infringement and prohibited Vitályos “from committing further infringements.”
(via 444)