Gov’t Spent 5 Billion Ft. of Public Money on Promoting “Child Protection” Referendum

From January, an estimated 5 billion Ft. (US $13.8 million) was spent on billboards promoting the so-called “child protection” referendum that was held together with parliamentary elections on April 3, reports Napi.hu from calculations by Kantar Media.

This sum included public service commercials that similarly served the government’s preferred narrative: a dramatized scene of a young girl telling her mother that instead of their regular lessons at school, students listened to a lecture about gender transitioning.

Kantar estimated that the Prime Minister’s Office spent nearly 3 billion Ft. ($8.29 million) just in March on traditional media advertising (print, TV and radio commercials, and public billboards) for the campaign.

Despite the campaign and vast sums spent on it, none of the four questions on the government-proposed referendum reached the required threshold, and were therefore delcared invalid. [HVG]