Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted on Sunday night a football-themed video to offer encouragement to all Hungarians — living in the country and abroad — to promote national unity and care for one another during the coronavirus crisis.
Set to the hit songsong “Without you” from tune the popular hard folk rock band Ismerős Arcok, the video begins with a panoramic shot of Budapest and Orbán’s voice announcing the movement restrictions instated from March 28 until April 11. It then cuts to a series of images of football players and fans across the world, bearing their various clubs’ paraphernalia.
The video was in fact a response to an appeal by the Dunaszerdahely football club (Dunajská Streda, Slovakia) for people around the world to sing the song together, which also serves as the team’s anthem, at 4:50 p.m.
The time is symbolic since it is ten minutes before the official kick-off time of the Slovakian team’s matches.
Dunaszerdahely also has a sizeable ethnic Hungarian minority.
The consecutive shots in the video show fans and football players in 11 Hungarian cities, or cities with sizeable Hungarian majorities abroad, as well as popular local rapper Curtis. Other cameos include Hungarian national team coach Marco Rossi joining from Italy and national team left-forward Balázs Dzsudzsák, currently with El-Ajn Football Club in the United Emirates.
The video ends with a nighttime panorama of Budapest’s iconic Chain Bridge and the subtitle “No Hungarian is alone”.
Orbán is a long-time football fan and one-time player. When he first became prime minister in 1998 at the age of 35, he was even still an active professional player of his hometown Felcsút FC.
Title image: Closing shot of the video with the subtitle “No Hungarian is alone”. (source: Viktor Orbán’s Facebook page)
