Hungary's longtime prime minister rallies to keep seat as rival calls for a new era

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Hungary's longtime prime minister rallies to keep seat as rival calls for a new era

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban slams Europe in an election speech on his country's Revolution Day.

A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:

People took to the streets in Hungary's capital, Budapest, on Sunday to support two candidates competing to lead the country. One is strongman Viktor Orban, who's running for a fifth consecutive term in next month's election. The other is trying to end his rule. Hundreds of thousands of people turned out, according to an estimate by the Associated Press. And NPR's Rob Schmitz joins us now to talk about this. So, Rob, Orban's election victories really have not been that close. So how likely is it that he loses this time around?

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Yeah. They have not been close, but polls this time around show that Orban is facing his first real challenge to his power in his 15 years in office. Opposition candidate Peter Magyar is leading in the polls by double digits. Yesterday, Orban called Magyar a puppet of Brussels, the seat of the European Union, and a puppet of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Here's what Orban said.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRIME MINISTER VIKTOR ORBAN: (Speaking Hungarian).

SCHMITZ: And, A, he's saying here that "it is impossible to know the day or the hour when the first soldier from Brussels will step onto Ukrainian soil. But we know one thing for sure. It will happen, and we must stay out of it. And I," Orban told his supporters, "will preserve Hungary as an island of security and calm in a turbulent world."

MARTÍNEZ: All right. So Orban seems to be equating the EU and Ukraine with war and is portraying himself as a leader of peace.

SCHMITZ: Exactly. And it's worth pointing out here that Viktor Orban is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. He's also close to President Trump, and he has a long-running feud with Zelenskyy because as a member of the EU, Hungary, through Orban, has voted against and been able to hold up crucial military aid to Ukraine. He's also accused Zelenskyy of refusing to fix an oil pipeline that connects Russia to Hungary and which runs through Ukraine. Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged by Russian airstrikes.

MARTÍNEZ: And Orban's challenger, 44-year-old Peter Magyar, got a much bigger crowd, it sounds like.

SCHMITZ: Absolutely. Even though Magyar originally came from Orban's right-wing Fidesz party, he has since managed to unite parties, to oppose Orban's rule. Here is a snippet of Magyar's speech.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PETER MAGYAR: (Speaking Hungarian).

SCHMITZ: And he's saying here to his supporters, "if we join forces, we cannot only replace an era, but also build a new one, a calmer, fairer and more humane country," he said, "a country where we finally do not have to be afraid, don't have to only manage to survive, but can thrive in peace." Now, Magyar has said his party would curb corruption, which has been rampant under Orban's rule. He said he'd unlock billions of euros in frozen EU funds to boost the economy. Those funds were frozen because of Orban's crackdowns on democracy. And Magyar said he would firmly anchor Hungary in the EU and in NATO, and that would represent a big change for Europe.

MARTÍNEZ: That's NPR's Rob Schmitz. Rob, thanks.

SCHMITZ: Thank you.

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