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

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — 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, expected to draw 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.

As crowds gathered on a bridge over the Danube ahead of the pro-government march that would end with a speech by the prime minister, Orbán supporter Anikó Menyhárt said his 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.

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In the days ahead of Sunday’s events, held on the March 15 national holiday commemorating Hungary’s 1848 revolution against the Habsburg Empire, both Orbán and Magyar stressed to their followers the importance of attending. Many observers 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.

Magyar’s supporters planned their own march through central Budapest later in the day. Tisza has predicted it will be Hungary’s “biggest ever political event.”

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 European Union 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, responding to numerous media reports that Russian intelligence services were seeking to use a disinformation campaign to tilt the election in Orbán’s favor, has warned his supporters that manipulated recordings could be used to discredit him or his movement.

Orbán has relied increasingly on an aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign that alleges Kyiv, the EU and Tisza are part of a conspiracy to oust his government and install one that makes decisions more favorable to Ukraine.

The central message of Orbán’s pitch is that a new government would bankrupt Hungary by supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion — something he has refused to do — and send Hungary’s youth to their deaths on the front lines. The campaign has been replete with disinformation, and relied heavily on pictures and videos generated by artificial intelligence.

Further fueling the tension, Hungary’s government this week said it will declassify a national security report that Orbán claims will prove Tisza received illegal financing from Ukraine — a claim Magyar has strongly denied.