Orban has sought to portray opposition leader Magyar as a ‘puppet’ of Brussels and Kyiv – Copyright AFP Attila KISBENEDEK<\/p>\n
G\u00e9za MOLNAR, Andras ROSTOVANYI<\/p>\n
Huge crowds joined rival marches staged by Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and his main opponent Peter Magyar in Budapest on Sunday, as both push allegations of foreign interference just four weeks before tightly-fought elections.<\/p>\n
Orban \u2014 who faces an unprecedented challenge to his 16-year rule \u2014 has sought to portray the opposition leader as a \u201cpuppet\u201d of Brussels and Kyiv, while Magyar has accused the Moscow-friendly premier of seeking the Kremlin\u2019s help to stay in power ahead of the April 12 elections.<\/p>\n
The nationalist leader in his speech Sunday urged Ukraine to stop \u201cattacking\u201d the central European country.<\/p>\n
In a heated spat, he has accused Kyiv in past weeks of blocking a key pipeline transporting Russian oil through Ukraine to Hungary.<\/p>\n
Magyar, in turn, accused Orban on Sunday of seeking to curb Hungary\u2019s freedom by \u201cinviting Russian agents\u201d to \u201cinterfere in the elections\u201d.<\/p>\n
This follows reports by regional investigative outlet VSquare and the Financial Times of a covert Russian social media campaign to boost Orban and weaken the opposition.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people attended both rallies, according to AFP journalists on site.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018 We will not be a Ukranian colony\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Hungarians from around the country travelled to Orban\u2019s rally dubbed a \u201cpeace march\u201d on the country\u2019s national day, many using buses rented by a group close to Orban\u2019s Fidesz party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is unrest all over the world, and here in our little country we want to preserve peace, calm and security. And Viktor Orban ensures that for us,\u201d said Sandorne Pista, 60, who came from the southern university town of Pecs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not be a Ukrainian colony,\u201d read one of the banners carried ahead of the crowd, which later chanted \u201cViktor, Viktor\u201d as the Hungarian premier took the stage in front of the parliament.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive us our oil, then roll your trucks over to the cash register in Brussels to collect money from the West, since they can\u2019t say no,\u201d Orban said in reference to the ongoing oil dispute with Kiyv.<\/p>\n
Orban\u2019s party has been trailing in polls since last year, and he has recently centred his campaign on attacking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n
Tensions between Zelensky and Orban reached new heights last week, when Zelensky appeared to issue a direct threat against Orban and Hungary detained and then expelled a group of Ukrainian bank employees.<\/p>\n
Orban told supporters that either he or the Ukrainian leader will form Hungary\u2019s next government.<\/p>\n
Zelensky, whose country has been battling a Russian invasion since 2022, in a fresh statement Sunday accused Hungary\u2019s government of spreading \u201canti-Ukrainian sentiment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ready to work amicably (with any Hungarian leader), provided this person is not an ally of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u2018Russians go home\u2019 \u2013<\/p>\n
Opposition supporters marched behind horsemen dressed as hussars \u2014 Hungary\u2019s historic light cavalry formation.<\/p>\n
Many have dismissed the government accusations against Magyar\u2019s party.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re trying to divert attention away from the scandalous state of public affairs,\u201d Noemi Kiss, a 28-year-old communications manager, told AFP.<\/p>\n
Amid recurring chants of \u201cRussians go home,\u201d Magyar promised the crowd that his party would achieve a \u201cvictory so great\u201d that \u201cit will be visible\u2026 even from the Kremlin.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also vowed that his government will bring an end to \u201chatred, division and fear\u201d in public discourse.<\/p>\n
Billboards against Zelensky have sprung up in recent weeks across Hungary, using images of the Ukrainian leader next to Magyar.<\/p>\n
\u201cOrban is doing everything he can to rev up the war psychosis that brought him a fourth supermajority in 2022\u201d after Russia invaded Ukraine, Robert Laszlo, an election specialist at the think-tank Political Capital, told AFP.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orban has sought to portray opposition leader Magyar as a ‘puppet’ of Brussels and Kyiv – Copyright AFP…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[104],"tags":[211,210,3039,238,23025,23026],"class_list":["post-40694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-belgium","tag-brussels","tag-hungary","tag-russia","tag-ukraine-news","tag-vote"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116234590937031433","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}