This post is part of Global Voices’ April 2026 Spotlight series, “Human perspectives on AI.” This series will offer insight into how AI is being used in global majority countries, how its use and implementation are affecting individual communities, what this AI experiment might mean for future generations, and more.

As Hungary approaches its upcoming Parliamentary elections on April 12, the country’s two major political parties — FIDESZ, the incumbent, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán; and the opposition TISZA, led by former FIDESZ party member Péter Magyar — which are going up against each other, have started their campaigns in earnest. Citizens of the Central European country are seeing election messages not only on the streets, but online as well. As the BBC reported on April 1, just 11 days before the scheduled election date, FIDESZ — at 35 percent — was far behind TISZA’s 58 percent in the popularity polls.

Magyar emerged as Orban’s strongest opposition when, in February 2024, he appeared live on the pro-opposition YouTube channel Partizán, criticised his own party and spoke of his hope for political change, noting it would be very difficult while Orban was still in power. The video went viral. The very next month, Magyar launched TISZA as an opposition party to FIDESZ, which has led the nation for the past 16 years.

The Orbán regime, as it has been called, has been employing an “us versus them” political philosophy, a tactic being used even more prominently as voting day draws nearer.

Paired with artificial intelligence (AI) tools, however, Orbán’s divisive messaging appears to be widening divide in Hungarian society. The party’s full-on mobilisation of this communications approach started online in 2025, after it was established that the majority of younger voters — whom FIDESZ wanted to attract — were leaning towards supporting TISZA.

Even prior to the party’s push for the youth demographic, however, FIDESZ maintained a strong presence, both online and in traditional mass media channels. A common approach involved mobilising their voters by calling for them to support the party’s Digital Civil Circles (DPKs) — essentially Facebook groups fighting to create online space for FIDESZ. Facebook is the most used platform within the party’s online content strategy, and it is from within these Facebook groups that the majority of AI content is being distributed. For example, one Facebook account has posted what has since become a notorious war ad.

Even before this election campaign, AI has contributed to the majority of Orbán’s communications. From posters on the streets to videos that associate voting for the opposition with going to war, AI has been an effective fear-mongering tool.

Most recently, the party produced a comic book, which tells the story of how Magyar allegedly has two sides. The publication suggested that Magyar lies to the people of Hungary, only pretending to stand with them while secretly working for Ursula von der Leyen, the current president of the European Commission. It is quite common to see the comic book being promoted alongside other FIDESZ campaign material, including on advertising spaces like billboards and bus stops.

One question being discussed is whether these realistic-looking AI videos and comic books are crossing the line in the context of a democratic election. The images are quite realistic-looking, and many citizens cannot tell the difference between fact and synthesized, AI-generated visuals — especially when FIDESZ is portrayed as the only viable option.

A good example of the extent to which Hungarian people are led to believe that AI-generated propaganda is real revolves around a false taxation system that the government claims the opposition has. It even organised a national consultation in which people weighed in on whether or not they wanted the alleged TISZA taxes.

In office since 2010, the far-right, nationalistic Orbán has maintained backing from both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has consistently challenged the European Union and remains one of the few EU leaders reluctant to support Ukraine. For Europe’s expanding group of nationalist movements, whether already governing or nearing power, an Orbán loss at the polls could potentially weaken the position of far-right parties in the rest of the EU. In response, a senior TISZA official told the BBC, “While the rest of Europe is being sucked into the radical nationalist tunnel, we can show the way out.”

The use of AI in political ads is not directly prohibited by the EU AI Act, which came into force in August 2024, but it becomes fully applicable only in August 2026. According to this legislation, AI-generated political ads need to be clearly labeled as such, and “manipulative” use of AI is prohibited. However, Hungarian elections are still in the “grey zone” of AI regulation, not simply because the EU AI act has not fully gone into effect, but also because the country does not have its own national law on AI use.

Fact checkers, though, have investigated the enormous amount of fake claims and disinformation circulating around the election — many of them using AI. Orbán’s party does label some of the ads as “AI-generated,” and some, not. Its opponents, meanwhile, although also spreading some false narratives, have mostly been engaged with social media without using AI-generated content.

As Zsófia Fülöp, a journalist at Hungary’s only independent fact-checking website, Lakmusz, told the BBC, while such narratives from the ruling party are not new, the use of generative AI is: “It is omnipresent in this campaign, especially in the communication of the ruling party and its media and proxies. They’ve used it before, but now it’s massive.”

The Hungarian elections, which will culminate in the vote on April 12, is among the first to employ such a spread of AI-generated ads and disinformation. Depending on the results, others might follow.