“Donald Tusk is very enthusiastic about the rally of the opposition TISZA party. Too bad he did not show up this time. Four years ago he attended the opposition rally on March 15. The result? We won by a 20% margin,” Szijjarto wrote on X.
Tusk had posted a photo from Sunday’s march organized by opposition leader Peter Magyar, writing: “Budapest today. Spring is coming. LENGYEL MAGYAR két jó barát [„Pole and Hungarian brothers be”]!”
Sunday’s Hungarian National Day commemorates the outbreak of the 1848 revolution and, with elections due on April 12, became a show of strength for the rival camps of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz and Magyar’s Tisza.
At midday, government supporters gathered for a Peace March, repeating opposition to European Union aid for Ukraine. Speaking at the end of the march, Orban said Budapest would continue to oppose “Brussels’ war plans.”
“It is time for Kyiv and Brussels to understand that our sons will not die for Ukraine, but will live for Hungary,” Orban said in Kossuth Square in front of parliament. He added he would seek to keep Hungary an “island of safety and calm in an upside-down world.”
Later in the day, Tisza supporters filled Heroes’ Square in Budapest for a National March. Addressing the crowd, Magyar framed the election as a choice between enslavement and freedom, invoking the spirit of the 1848 revolution. He also pledged that, if elected in April, he would limit the prime minister’s term to two terms.
Polish Press Agency (PAP) reported that Tisza leads Fidesz in most independent polls, and in a February survey by Median the party held a 20-point lead among decided voters.
(jh)
Source: PAP