Orban and challenger Magyar summon rival rallies in show of strength before Hungary’s April election

BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his main political opponent, Péter Magyar, each called their supporters to the streets of Hungary’s capital on Sunday for a show of strength before the two men face off in pivotal elections just four weeks away.

The rival rallies in Budapest, which drew hundreds of thousands of people in support of Orbán’s nationalist Fidesz party and Magyar’s center-right Tisza, are being viewed as a barometer for which side commands more support as the campaign enters its final month.

In power since 2010 and looking for his fifth consecutive election victory, Orbán, 62, faces a more competitive race than at any time in the past two decades as Magyar has shot to prominence and challenged what once seemed to be an unshakeable grip on power by the pro-Russian populist.

The prime minister has relied increasingly on an aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign that alleges Kyiv, the European Union and Tisza are part of a conspiracy to oust his government and install one that would financially support Ukraine and send soldiers to fight in its war against Russia.

On Sunday, tens of thousands of Orbán supporters marched across a bridge over the Danube and toward Hungary’s parliament, where the prime minister delivered a speech to the crowd which filled the sprawling square. A banner at the front of the march read, “We won’t be a Ukrainian colony!”

In his speech, Orbán painted a dark picture of the future filled with the dangers of war and mass migration, but promised he would “preserve Hungary as an island of security and tranquility even in such a turbulent world.”

PHOTOS: Orbán and challenger Magyar summon rival rallies in show of strength before Hungary’s April election

He described the elections in 28 days as a “crossroads” for the country’s future, and repeatedly took aim at the EU and Ukraine, comparing them to invading forces from Hungary’s history.

“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.”

Orbán supporter Anikó Menyhárt said the leader’s appeal could be summed up in three words: “God, homeland, family.”

“Only this government is able to secure these three things for the future,” she said.

Tisza ahead in polls

Many observers of Sunday’s events, held on the March 15 national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution, were watching for which party was able to mobilize more people to its rally, a possible glimpse into how they might perform on April 12.

Hungary’s stagnating economy, deteriorating public services and a cost of living crisis – compounded by increasingly salient allegations of government corruption – have helped fuel growing dissatisfaction with Orbán and his autocratic style.

While the long-serving leader has centered his campaign around what he says are the dangers to Hungary posed by the EU and neighboring Ukraine, Magyar, a 44-year-old lawyer and one-time Fidesz insider who broke with the party in 2024, has focused his message on improving conditions for ordinary Hungarians.

Through relentless campaigning across Hungary’s rural countryside, traditionally an Orbán stronghold, Magyar has spread the message that he will restore Hungary’s democratic institutions that have eroded under Orbán, and steer the country back toward its Western partners and off its drift toward Moscow.

In a video posted to social media early Sunday, Magyar said his party “would like to give back to every Hungarian what the outgoing government has taken away: our belief in our freedom, and the feeling that our homeland truly belongs to every Hungarian.”

Tisza holds a lead over Fidesz in most independent polling, and in a February survey by pollster Medián published by the news site HVG, Magyar’s party was at a 20 percentage point advantage among decided voters.

But the outcome of the election remains far from certain as Fidesz has sought to engage its broad support in many rural areas and leverage its control over public broadcasters and a vast web of loyal media outlets to deliver its message.

Magyar’s supporters kicked off their own march through central Budapest later in the afternoon, filling the length of one of the city’s longest avenues. Tisza had predicted it would be Hungary’s “biggest ever political event.”

One Tisza supporter, Áron Pintér, 19, said he believed an opposition victory would result in the EU releasing billions in funding for Hungary that has been frozen over rule-of-law and corruption concerns under Orbán.