Afternoon Update: Gigan-sized "Igen" Attacks District XIV

• A 1,700-square-meter poster of Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány's face, the largest such billboard in Central Europe, is blocking out 70% 30% of the sunlight that normally goes into an 18-story building on Kassai tér in Budapest's District XIV. (The scale of the poster, which mostly just says Igen - yes! - can be inferred from the 27,500-ton, cranial horned, scythe-clawed cyborg monster Gigan from the Hunter Nebula in Universe M. standing to the right.) As compensation, the building is receiving Ft 1.2 million a month, which it will use to renovate elevators and electric wiring. And this doesn't even count what they are getting from the other side of the building, where there is a Megalon-sized poster for opposition party Fidesz. [magyar hírlap]

• "The election is a competition among the parties, not war," Gyurcsány said on Hungarian Radio this morning. He was referring to an incident in the southern city of Mohács on Saturday in which a loud group of protesters threw oranges at him. He said the situation was like a "civil war." "It is always easier to shake your fist and yell than have a clever conversation," Gyurcsány said. Or to put up a picture of your face as big as Godzilla. Duh. [ma.hu]

• Three villages in BAZ (Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén) County have been snowed in for the past day or so. There have been no reports yet of cannibalism, or of anyone bothering to help dig the poor fuckers out. [inforadio.hu]

• Fidesz has a database of eight million people, in which those who have voted for the party are indicated with the letter "Sz" (szimpatizáns; "supporter"), non-Fidesz-voters with "E" (ellenség; "enemy") and undecided voters with "B" (bizonytalan; unsure), which is apparently illegal and otherwise very, very bad, even if they are not going to use it to track down and kill their enemies and reward their supporters with cash and porn. [hirszerzo.hu]

• The first of the 40 Siemens Combino trams that will run on Budapest's Nagykörút (Big Ring Road) arrived in Budapest this morning, a week earlier than planned. [index.hu]

• In two election districts of Szombathely, activists from far-right parties MIÉP-Jobbik handed in photocopied kopogtatócédulák (nomination slips), which is apparently illegal and otherwise very, very bad. [hvg.hu]

• An activist from center-right opposition party Fidesz was slapped and threatened in Mihálygerge, Nógrád County, which is apparently illegal and otherwise very, very bad. [hírszerző]