The IRÁNY a Jövő Party has submitted three referendum initiatives – against incitement, AI abuses and the tobacco-concession system

As an active, action-taking force, the IRÁNY a Jövő Party uses political tools with which Hungary’s development can be moved forward through real steps. Our aim is clear: to build a stronger, wealthier, more beautiful Hungary, with fair rules, a safe digital environment and a clean competitive market.

Today we submitted three referendum initiatives on the following topics:

• banning hateful political content
• banning the use of people’s faces and voices without consent – including content created with artificial intelligence
• abolishing the tobacco concession, as a first step towards a fair competitive market

1. Banning hateful political content

The question:

“Do you agree that the National Assembly should enact a law which precisely defines what qualifies as hateful political advertising, and which prohibits and sanctions the publication to the wider public of advertisements published for political purposes that aim to exclude and/or stigmatise certain groups of the population or their members?”

In recent years Hungarian public life has been dominated by the politics of fear-mongering, stigmatisation and turning people against one another, which tears communities apart and weakens the country. At present there is no clear legal definition and no effective system of sanctions for hateful political content; the new law would close this legal gap.

The aim of the IRÁNY a Jövő Party is for a cleaner, more peaceful, more humane political culture to emerge, where it is possible to debate but not to incite hatred. We work for a Hungary where no one can be made an enemy for political purposes because of their origin, faith, conviction or way of life.

2. Banning the unauthorised, AI-generated use of face and voice

The question:

“Do you agree that the National Assembly should enact a law which prohibits the use of a natural person’s face, appearance or voice – including use in content produced with artificial intelligence – without the prior consent of the person concerned, and which furthermore requires advertising service providers to verify the existence of consent before use, and which has the Criminal Code sanction violations of the ban?”

In the age of artificial intelligence, anyone’s face or voice can be produced with a few clicks, which is both a technological opportunity and a serious risk of abuse. In Hungary there is currently no clear legal protection tailored to the AI era against unauthorised use, deepfake videos, fake audio recordings and identity theft.

The proposed law would ban unauthorised use, act with criminal sanctions against abuses, and oblige advertising service providers to verify consent. According to the IRÁNY a Jövő Party, our face, our voice, our identity must not become a tool of manipulation. Technology must not turn against people.

3. Abolishing the tobacco concession – the first step towards a fair competitive market

The question:

“Do you agree that any business carrying out retail and/or hospitality activity should be entitled to the retail sale of tobacco products, and that to this end the National Assembly should enact a law repealing every legal provision that currently ensures that the retail sale of tobacco products falls exclusively within the scope of activities assigned to the Hungarian State, which the Hungarian State currently exercises by granting a concession?”

The tobacco-shop system of the past decade created a politically allocated monopoly that put a few actors in a favourable position while shutting out tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and hundreds of settlements from the market. Tobacco consumption did not fall meaningfully, while access became cumbersome in many places, and artificial barriers distorted the market.

The proposed change would abolish the state monopoly on tobacco retail, take tobacco out of the concession system, and create a performance-based competitive market, while child-protection and health rules would remain in force unchanged. According to the IRÁNY a Jövő Party, this is the first step towards a fair competitive market and a transparent economy, one that reduces corruption risks and sends a strong signal to Europe and to investors.

Quote – Dezső Farkas, leader of the IRÁNY a Jövő Party

“We start out not from the grievances of the past but from the opportunities of the future. With these referendum initiatives we send a clear message: we do not accept politics built on hatred, we will protect people’s identity in the age of artificial intelligence, and we will dismantle the monopolies that stand in the way of fair competition.”