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

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his main political opponent, Péter Magyar, each drew throngs of 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 an unshakable grip on power by the pro-Russian populist.

Addressing a crowd of at least 100,000 on Budapest's Heroes' Square, Magyar charged Orbán's government with turning Hungarians against one another through propaganda and divisive policies, and of steering the country away from its rightful place among Western democracies.

“Our homeland is part of the West, our homeland is part of the European community, our country is part of NATO. And not because of treaties or charters, but because it is written in our destiny,” Magyar said.

“Our ancestors left us the inheritance of where we belong,” he continued. “We’re not afraid. We have learned from our ancestors that nothing lasts forever.”

In the lead-up to the election, Orbán 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.

The election's stakes, he has claimed, are whether or not the war in Ukraine bankrupts Hungary and sends its youth to their deaths on the front lines.

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 a 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.”

He described the elections 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.”

During the march, supporter Anikó Menyhárt said Orbán’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.

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 methods.

While the long-serving leader has centered his campaign around what he says are the threats to Hungary posed by a dangerous outside world, 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.

“On April 12, we will achieve a victory that will be seen not only from the moon, but also from the Kremlin," he said.

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.

As part of his campaign, Orbán has also used public funds to cover the country in billboards featuring an AI-manipulated image of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy flashing a sinister smile. The caption reads: “We won’t let Zelenskyy have the last laugh!”

One Tisza supporter, Attila Tóth, 51, said he believes a Tisza government would improve education, healthcare and transportation, and break with Orbán’s practice of using public spaces for political messaging.

“(Tisza) won’t brainwash people, and you won’t feel sick when you walk down the street and see 15 posters every 100 meters (328 feet) telling you who the enemy is at the moment,” he said.