Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addresses people as they gather to support him and his party during a ‘peace march’ in Budapest, Hungary, June 1, 2024.
Orbán and his Fidesz party have built a reputation as being among the friendliest in the EU to Russia and its president, Vladimir Putin. Hungary has refused to supply neighboring Ukraine with weapons to assist in its fight against Russia’s invasion and has threatened to derail EU financial aid to Kyiv and to block sanctions against Moscow.
His party appears set to gain the most seats in the EU legislature in next week’s election. But a series of scandals and a deep economic crisis has given room for one political newcomer, Péter Magyar, to seize on Orbán’s moment of weakness and build a major political movement in the last three months that looks poised to take a significant portion of votes.
Magyar, who has risen to prominence through publicly accusing Orbán’s party of corruption and turning Hungary’s media into a pro-government propaganda machine, has himself held numerous large protests and called for “the largest political demonstration in Hungary’s history” on the eve of the elections.
People march during a rally in support of Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his party in Budapest, Hungary, June 1, 2024.
But the crowd in Budapest on Saturday showed that Orbán’s brand of right-wing populism — and threats that military support to Ukraine by the EU and United States is leading toward a new world war — still resonates among large parts of Hungarian society.
“I trust Viktor Orbán. Let our children have a livable country, not a bombed-out country,” said Budapest resident József Fehér at the demonstration. “The weapons that Europe has given to the Ukrainians could be turned back against us. And we don’t want that.”
Orbán has condemned his EU and NATO partners who assist Ukraine as being “pro-war,” and advocated for an election victory for former U.S. President Donald Trump.
In his speech, he said a Trump victory in November would lead to he and the U.S. administration forming a “transatlantic peace coalition” that could bring an end to the fighting in Ukraine.
Source link : https://www.voanews.com/amp/hungary-s-orb%C3%A1n-stages-peace-march-ahead-of-eu-elections-/7638999.html
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Publish date : 2024-06-01 19:21:08
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