{"id":421467,"date":"2025-03-17T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/03\/17\/ungheria-manifestazioni-orban-magyar\/"},"modified":"2025-03-17T14:09:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T13:09:25","slug":"the-two-demonstrations-in-budapest-orban-vs-magyar-the-opposition-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/03\/17\/the-two-demonstrations-in-budapest-orban-vs-magyar-the-opposition-leader\/","title":{"rendered":"The two demonstrations in Budapest: Orb\u00e1n vs. Magyar, the opposition leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels–While Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> was ranting against the EU and the\u00a0alleged foreign influence in Hungary<\/strong>, in Budapest, tens of thousands of citizens gathered to protest against his illiberal government<\/strong>. The leader of the opposition, P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/strong>, could challenge the premier’s party for the lead in next year’s elections.<\/p>\n

The squares of the Hungarian capital were crowded on Saturday (March 15) for two opposing demonstrations. On the one hand, Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong> gave a speech on the anniversary of the failed<\/strong> 1848 revolution against the Habsburg rule. “There is always an empire that tries to take away the freedom of Hungarians<\/strong>,”\u00a0the Fidesz\u00a0 <\/i>leader said, referring to the uprising against the Austrian empire, claiming that “<\/i>right now, it is the one in Brussels<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

In a series of attacks\u00a0against the EU, Orb\u00e1n complained that “Brussels is abusing its power, as Vienna did\u00a0in the past” and that “it wants to colonize” Europe through war<\/strong>. The solution, he said (after being cornered<\/a>\u00a0by the rest of the 27 member states\u00a0at the last extraordinary summit, precisely on continued support for Kyiv), is to\u00a0keep Ukraine out of the twelve-star club<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Viktor<\/a>
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n (photo: European Council)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Reiterating conspiracy theories such as that of the so-called “great replacement,” Orb\u00e1n added that “a battle is being fought today for the soul of the Western world” and that “the empire wants to mix and then replace the indigenous peoples of Europe<\/strong> with masses of invaders from foreign civilizations.”<\/p>\n

There were also attacks on\u00a0independent Hungarian media and organizations<\/strong>. Orb\u00e1n branded these intermediary bodies as “bugs” and promised a crackdown on what he called a “shadow army” that allegedly\u00a0threatens the sovereignty<\/strong> and independence of the central European country: “We will dismantle the financial machine that has used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs, and political activists,” he continued.<\/p>\n

In the past few months, Budapest has taken several measures against entities that receive foreign funding, passing a contested foreign agent law<\/strong> <\/strong>that resembles a similar measure in place in Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Among the targets of Orb\u00e1n’s campaign against what he sees as a kind of liberal coup\u00a0against him<\/strong> <\/strong>(who, in 2014, proudly championed a model of “illiberal democracy”<\/strong>)<\/strong> are also the funds of USAID<\/strong>, <\/strong>the US\u00a0international development agency the\u00a0<\/strong>operations of which the Donald Trump <\/strong>administration\u00a0froze<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last week, Fidesz<\/i> proposed a series of amendments to the Hungarian Constitution<\/strong> that, among other things, would allow for the expulsion of dual-passport citizens<\/strong> if their behavior threatens “sovereignty or national security.”<\/p>\n

\"P\u00e9ter<\/a>
MEP and Tisza leader P\u00e9ter Magyar (photo: Mathieu Cugnot\/European Parliament)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shortly after the premier’s rally, there was another demonstration in the Hungarian\u00a0capital, which was in the opposite direction, gathering over 50 thousand people,<\/strong> according to organizers. It was an anti-Orb\u00e1n demonstration inflamed by opposition leader P\u00e9ter Magyar. “<\/strong>Those who betray their nation must end up in the trash\u00a0of history,” the MEP told his supporters. The premier and his cronies “exploit the Hungarian people<\/strong>, daze\u00a0and divide them, turning (the citizens, Ed.<\/em>) against each other,” he said.<\/p>\n

Once a member of Fidesz<\/i>, Magyar founded its own party, Tisza<\/i><\/strong>, which recently became Orb\u00e1n’s main thorn in the side<\/a>.\u00a0After its success in the last European elections (where it garnered 29.6 percent of support), the polls now give Tisza a head-to-head<\/a> with Fidesz<\/i> or even a few points ahead, an unprecedented feat in the last 15 years<\/strong> in which national politics has remained firmly in the hands of Orb\u00e1n’s party. “Our time has come<\/strong>,” Magyar promised the opposition square. Hungary will vote to renew parliament in April 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At national independence celebrations, the Hungarian prime minister lashed out at the European Union and its belligerent, anti-Hungarian “empire.” The opposition leader is aiming for elections next year to unseat the premier and put an end to his reign that began in 2010<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":421457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[28232,27782,30730,30669],"class_list":["post-421467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-fideszat","tag-peter-hungarian","tag-tisza-en","tag-viktor-orban-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421467"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421467\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":421488,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421467\/revisions\/421488"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}