POLITICS
Get involved
The many ways of mixing it protests and journalism
P
olitics can be frustrating and rough. From small regional elections to presidential campaigns it impacts on our lives regardless of how old we are. Some people decide to grasp the opportunity to ensure their voices are heard regardless of when the next election is. So when Márton Gulyás records a new video, you know that something is going on in his country. Mr Gulyás is a political activist, YouTube vlogger and theatre director from Hungary. He also founded the “Country for All Movement” which, during Hungary’s April elections, studied opposition candidates and organised debates and public polls in electoral districts. “It was obvious that the government was incredibly popular among the people so the only reasonable goal for any political organisation could have been to prevent them from getting the constitutional majority,” he said. They tried to unify the opposition parties, “but it didn’t work well, unfortunately,” said Mr Gulyás. For the third consecutive time Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s party Fidesz secured a majority. “People are not politicised in my country. Their only political activity is to vote every four years. They are not active at the local level. I don’t blame them, I blame the politicians. They didn’t put in any effort into involving, empowering the people,” he stated. Yet the dynamics in Hungary are changing, and Mr Gulyás seems more determined than ever. “The younger people I meet with are much braver, much brighter and more politically engaged
34
than I was at 18. When I was 18 I was interested in nothing else but my own wellbeing, about the books I read, about dating with people. Right now it is the young people in Hungary forming new political organisations who take to the streets to criticise the government.” In 2013 Mr Gulyás joined street protests against the budget cuts and financial troubles independent theatres were facing. In 2017, thanks in part to his organisation, thousands were again marching against the Hungarian electoral system, the government’s new education measures, and Mr Orbán’s seemingly anti-democratic policies. Mr Gulyás also fills a gap in Hungarian media with his own YouTube channel. He creates political content in a country where “there is only one nationwide television station which provides political analysis” for the general public, and with “almost no nationwide daily political newspaper to write about a nonbiased agenda.” Mr Gulyás hopes to expand his YouTube channel into English, and potentially develop a live political show, all with the aim to “educate, activate and prepare people in a massive way until the time change will come.”
participation and voting
V
oting isn’t just for adults, and it can be much more interesting than just turning up for national elections. Democracy 2.1 is a Prague-based organisation that encourages better democratic processes around the world. Founded with the lofty ambition of
introducing a new voting system to democratic states, the company now focuses on bringing better democracy to various projects. According to Ekaterina Petrikevich, Democracy 2.1’s International Project Manager: “We are trying to invite people to participate in making decisions, sometimes when it isn’t an option at all.” Ms Petrikevich thinks that protests that “wreck cars is kind of participation and voices frustration, but it’s not constructive.” What Democracy 2.1 is trying to do is enable participation in a “constructive manner”, and one of the ways in which they do this is through “participatory budgeting.” In this scheme, participants (often school kids) are encouraged to pitch ideas for how a portion of a budget could be spent, and ultimately end up voting for it. This encourages children to see democratic engagement as a habit, with the ultimate objective of keeping them engaged in politics in their adult life.