BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — A countrywide billboard campaign that flooded the streets of Hungary this week takes aim at European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the start of an election campaign that marks an escalation of tensions between the country's nationalist conservative government and the European Union. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long taken an adversarial approach to the 27-nation bloc. He has accused Brussels of seeking to impose unwanted policies on Hungary, and compared membership in the EU to the 40 years of Soviet domination Hungary experienced in the 20th century. “This national consultation is by far the most anti-EU document that the government has released so far," Kreko said. But after more than two years and little apparent progress, the anti-EU campaign may show that Orbán has given up on unblocking them, said Dorka Takacsy, a research fellow at the Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy.

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Persons: Ursula von der Leyen, von der Leyen, Alex Soros, George Soros, “, Viktor Orbán, von, Leyen, Peter Kreko, Kreko, Dorka Takacsy, ” Takacsy, ” It’s, Soros, Jean, Claude Juncker, ”, Orbán, Eric Mamer, ” Mamer Organizations: European Union, Ukraine, EU, Centre, Integration, Democracy, European, Kreko, Huxit, Fidesz, Orbán Locations: BUDAPEST, Hungary, American, Hungarian, Brussels, EU, Budapest, ”, European, Europe