Hungry for a new government? Looking for a political party that openly admits it’s a joke?.Embrace the Hungarian Two-Tailed Dog Party (MKKP), founded in 2006 in the Hungarian city of Szeged by a group of activists who initially gained attention by promising voters they would build a mountain in the city, whose topography sounds similar to Regina. .It also made a proposal for a ‘Smaller Hungary,’ by trimming off bits of the exterior, promised free beer for everyone as well as eternal life plus 20 years and pledged to mend the hole in the ozone layer, becoming an official political party in Hungary in 2014..In March 2018, a member of MKKP appeared on a political program focused on upcoming parliamentary elections dressed as a giant yellow chicken in a business suit and clucked for five minutes at the program’s moderator..Despite its tongue-in-cheek approach, MKKP is now the country’s most popular opposition party among the under-40 demographic, according to Hungarian pollsters Median, and just 3% behind the ruling Fidesz party of longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orban..Gergely Kovacs, a 42-year-old artist and graphic designer, is a founder of the party and its co-president along with Suzi Dada..But in the more than a decade of rule by Orban and Fidesz, the Two-Tailed Dog Party has become more political, responding to the government's EU-skeptic ‘Stop Brussels’ campaign with its own "Stop Stopping Brussels" billboards and mocking the anti-migration posters distributed around the country, reports Radio Free Europe (RFE).."We apologize for our prime minister," one MKKP poster addressed to migrants said in English. "The hate campaign loves you," another stated. "Even if you tear it down, it's the same underneath," said a third one, a reference to the government's anti-migration posters that were widely defaced and ripped down, says RFE.."When the opposition seems incapable, both the MKKP and the Our Homeland Movement get stronger," political scientist Balint Ruff, also referring to a far-right political party, says RFE. "But while the latter is strengthened by people's inert anger, support for MKKP is boosted by a feeling of hopelessness.".Political parties in Hungary must achieve more than 5% of the popular before candidates can sit in parliament.."I won't cry because we are not in parliament," Kovacs said in an interview with RFE. "You can do more locally.".In the 2019 elections, five MKKP members, including the co-presidents, were elected locally, with Kovacs becoming a local councillor in Budapest's 12th district and taking meetings at a cafe. Dada is a deputy mayor in Budapest's 9th District..RFE reports, “In 2020, the party's network of activists helped elderly people during the pandemic and, after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, they raised 3 million forints ($8,700) for refugees, bringing aid to the crowded and overwhelmed train stations of the capital. The focus on local activism has seemingly paid off at the polls. In the 2018 parliamentary elections, the MKKP received 1.73% of the vote; in 2022's repeat encounter, they peaked with 3.27% .."Now that we are in the [local] assemblies, it's hard to say [what we are], as it looks like we are politicians," Kovacs told RFE prior to the 2022 parliamentary elections. "Now it feels like I'm an opposition politician."."I knew that it would probably be a 'wasted' vote and that they wouldn't reach 5%," Peter Takacs, 35, who has voted for the party before, told RFE. "I don't think that other political actors see them as serious, but I, perhaps naively, believed that their strengthening will suggest to the currently dominant parties that people have had enough, and that what they do is also a joke.”."I wouldn't trust them with governing the country, but I agree with the issues they deal with. I can imagine that in three years, they will reach the 5% threshold, as people who are disillusioned with the opposition will vote for them."
