Supporters of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán demonstrated in Budapest today, opposing any support for the war in neighboring Ukraine. There is a national election in six months, and Orbán’s opponent, Péter Magyar, whose followers were planning to march later in the day, has rank in the polls. Oct. 23 is the anniversary of Hungary’s thwarted 1956 uprising against Soviet rule.
According to The Guardian, Orbán “called Magyar’s event a ‘Brussels war march.’” Orbán’s party, Fidesz, which The Guardian claims “controls a significant proportion of the media,” has claimed that Magyar, an MEP, is a puppet of the EU or a Ukrainian agent, who wants to push Hungary into war.
ABC News reported: “At the front of the march, one large banner read: ‘We don’t want to die for Ukraine.’ Attendees, waving flags bearing the names of the towns and villages across Hungary from which they came, set off along the Margaret Bridge spanning the Danube, backdropped by Hungary’s towering neo-Gothic parliament.” Estimates put the number of demonstrators at more than 100,000. Prime Minister Orbán gave a speech to the crowd.
