Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar called on tens of thousands of supporters on Saturday to back his party at Sunday’s European Parliament election.
The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is expected to face one of the toughest challenges of his 14-year rule in tomorrow’s vote.
“We have to say it: the present political elite has become old, the ruling party in their unlimited power became degenerated, tired, and the people have had enough of this corrupt regime and want change now,” Magyar said during the rally.
“Whatever will be the result of the vote tomorrow, one thing is sure, we have beaten the apathy and formed an alliance between Hungarian and Hungarian,” he added.
“We have to say it: the present political elite has become old, the ruling party in their unlimited power became degenerated, tired, and the people have had enough of this corrupt regime and want change now,” Magyar said during the rally.
“Whatever will be the result of the vote tomorrow, one thing is sure, we have beaten the apathy and formed an alliance between Hungarian and Hungarian,” he added.
The size of today's anti-Orban rally in Budapest was insane.
— Jay in Kyiv (@JayinKyiv) June 8, 2024
pic.twitter.com/cCOHXMORth
A rally staged by Orbán in Budapest last week also drew tens of thousands of supporters, with the 61-year-old premier casting Sunday’s vote as a choice between war and peace in Europe amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, now in its third year.
In power since 2010, Orbán has grappled with multiple crises over the past months as a sex abuse scandal brought down two of his key allies, just as Hungary was emerging from the worst inflationary surge in the European Union.
Rising expenditure and a weak recovery have also prevented Orbán from unleashing the kind of lavish outlays that helped him coast to his fourth successive victory at a 2022 parliamentary election, while presenting Magyar with a rare opportunity.
The latest surveys put support for Orban’s right-wing Fidesz at 44% to 48%, with Magyar’s right-of-center Tisza polling in a 23% to 29% range, an unprecedented surge for the newcomer, who burst onto Hungary’s political scene just four months ago.
Magyar, whose rallies have attracted unusually large turnouts even in some rural Fidesz strongholds, has said his lawmakers would join the European People’s Party (EPP), which broke ranks with Orban in 2021.
Orbán, meanwhile, has courted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists Party, with his 12 European Parliament lawmakers not affiliated with any other grouping since its break-up with the mainstream EPP.
Magyar worked for the foreign ministry and then the prime minister’s office in Brussels before joining a state bank and then heading a student loan agency. He eventually became disenchanted with Fidesz over what he said was the corruption and state propaganda that he witnessed from the inside.
In power since 2010, Orbán has grappled with multiple crises over the past months as a sex abuse scandal brought down two of his key allies, just as Hungary was emerging from the worst inflationary surge in the European Union.
Rising expenditure and a weak recovery have also prevented Orbán from unleashing the kind of lavish outlays that helped him coast to his fourth successive victory at a 2022 parliamentary election, while presenting Magyar with a rare opportunity.
The latest surveys put support for Orban’s right-wing Fidesz at 44% to 48%, with Magyar’s right-of-center Tisza polling in a 23% to 29% range, an unprecedented surge for the newcomer, who burst onto Hungary’s political scene just four months ago.
Magyar, whose rallies have attracted unusually large turnouts even in some rural Fidesz strongholds, has said his lawmakers would join the European People’s Party (EPP), which broke ranks with Orban in 2021.
Orbán, meanwhile, has courted Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's European Conservatives and Reformists Party, with his 12 European Parliament lawmakers not affiliated with any other grouping since its break-up with the mainstream EPP.
Magyar worked for the foreign ministry and then the prime minister’s office in Brussels before joining a state bank and then heading a student loan agency. He eventually became disenchanted with Fidesz over what he said was the corruption and state propaganda that he witnessed from the inside.
Source: Reuters, TVP World
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