Hungary’s rival parties hold parallel rallies ahead of vote

Hungary’s ruling and opposition parties each held major rallies on Sunday as they race to shore up support ahead of hotly contested elections on April 12.

The rallies, held to mark the country’s national day, pitted right-wing, pro-Russia Prime Minister Viktor Orban, 62, against opposition leader Peter Magyar, 44, who is seeking to end Orban’s 16-year rule and offer support to Ukraine.

Orban’s nationalist Fidesz party has been trailing in polls against Magyar’s center-right Tisza party since last year and has turned to criticizing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy more harshly.

Orban slams Ukraine, EU

Tens of thousands of government supporters held a so-called “peace march” that crossed the Danube River and headed towards Hungary’s parliament in Budapest.

In his speech, Orban told Ukraine to stop “attacking” the central European country. It comes amid  a growing row between the two countries, with Ukraine blocking Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Hungarian authorities detaining a Ukrainian cash shipment.

A banner at the front of the march read, “We won’t be a Ukrainian colony!”

The Hungarian prime minister played up apparent threats facing the country, naming war and mass migration, but pledged to “preserve Hungary as an island of security and tranquility even in such a turbulent world.”

Orban acknowledged that the upcoming election put the country at a “crossroads” between Russia and the European Union, but vowed to maintain his friendly stance towards the Kremlin.

“We will be here even if hundreds of parachutists from Brussels fall from the sky,” he said, referring to the EU’s de facto capital in Belgium.

“We will round them up, dust off their pants and send them back, some to Brussels and some to Kyiv.”

Magyar envisions pro-Europe future

Across town, Magyar accused Orban of “inviting Russian agents” to “interfere in the elections.”He addressed a crowd of at least 100,000 supporters at Budapest’s Heroes Square.

Some of Magyar’s supporters chanted: “Russians go home.”

“Our homeland is part of the West, our homeland is part of the European community, our country is part of NATO,” Magyar said.

“And not because of treaties or charters, but because it is written in our destiny.”

Magyar also accused the prime minister of clinging to power and of turning Hungarians against each other.

“Holding onto power at all costs. It is all that matters to him now,” Magyar said of Orban.

“Provoking with war, threatening with war, stoking war. This is his ultimate weapon against the Hungarian people.”

Edited by: Alex Berry