Thousands of Hungarian protesters marched in Budapest over the weekend to express their dissatisfaction with Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Peter Magyar, called by the American state-funded media outlet Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty a "rising challenger" to the Hungarian prime minister, led the rally. He announced the creation of a coalition of liberals, conservatives and fragmented opposition leaders to run against Orban in the European Parliament (EP) election in June.
"Step by step, brick by brick, we are taking back our homeland and building a new country, a sovereign, modern, European Hungary," Magyar told the crowd, as quoted by the media. He accused the government of corruption and lack of independence.
UK newspaper The Guardian drew attention to the fact that the rally differed from the nation's "normal opposition demonstrations" by being quite entertaining: "music from a mafia TV show played while images of Hungary’s political elites flashed on a giant screen," with the crowd enjoying poetry, singing and listening to speeches during the event.
"[The rally] looked very similar to an American campaign. The events Magyar has been holding in recent weeks - with a stage, lighting, music and singers - require hundreds of millions of forints [Hungarian currency], something that he does not have. People were brought from the provinces on buses. Magyar himself said in an interview that he has contact with the US ambassador through intermediaries," Hungarian political expert Georg Spottle told Sputnik.
Spottle suggested that the Biden administration is seeking to create a new opposition force in Hungary before the US presidential elections in November. The maverick Hungarian prime minister has long been lambasted for his independent foreign policy course, refusal to subordinate his country's policies to the EU diktat, and his opposition to the ongoing NATO proxy war in Ukraine. In December 2023, the Orban government blocked €50 billion ($54 billion) in EU aid for Ukraine, citing its unwillingness to sponsor the military effort. In January, Budapest opposed the creation of a new EU fund to ensure the fast delivery of military aid to the Kiev regime.
US Seeking to Increase Pressure on Hungary
American decision-makers hope to amass a considerable political force inside Hungary to exert pressure on Orban and his government, Spottle believes. To that end, they could be funding the opposition rallies, according to the expert.
During a presidential campaign stop in Pennsylvania in early March, US President Joe Biden claimed that Orban "doesn't think democracy works and is looking for dictatorship." Biden's remarks prompted the Hungarian government to summon US Ambassador David Pressman to protest the derogatory comments. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto lambasted Washington and stressed that Budapest "is not obliged to tolerate lies, even from the president of the United States."
The term "dictator" and "dictatorship" is routinely used by the US leaders and foreign policy establishment to smear "undesired" governments worldwide.
"America is interested in long-term changes in Hungary, not short-term ones," said Spottle. "They have very little time. Now it looks like Donald Trump could win the presidential election [in the US]. But until then, there is time to create a new opposition in Hungary that will last for a long time to help a certain circle of American interests. They need a new face in Hungarian opposition politics, they will try to finance Magyar, he is young and good-looking," suggested the Hungarian political expert.
Spottle presumed that after the European elections scheduled for June 9, the US could be interested in Magyar challenging Orban in a prime ministerial race in 2026.
Who is Peter Magyar?
Magyar, 43, is a former member of the ruling Fidesz party. He attracted media attention on March 15, when he announced his intention to establish a new opposition coalition. The announcement came shortly after Biden's smearing Orban as a "dictator."
Last March, Magyar divorced from former Justice Minister Judit Varga who resigned in February, along with former Hungarian President Katalin Novak, in connection with a controversial pardon of the deputy director of a children's home who had been convicted of covering up child abuse.
Magyar's corruption accusations against the Orban government are based on a controversial audio recording of his ex-wife allegedly claiming that aides to Orban's cabinet chief tried to remove certain elements of documents in the bribery case. For her part, Varga insisted that she made her claims under pressure and accused Magyar of domestic violence, something that he denied.
Orban and Rise of the Right in Europe
The fact that the opposition rallies commanded support in Budapest is hardly surprising given that Hungary's most pro-European, pro-Euro-Atlantic voters reside there, according to Vadim Trukhachev, a political scientist and associate professor of the Faculty of International Relations and Foreign Regional Studies of the Russian State University for the Humanities.
"Budapest is the only region of Hungary where Orban was defeated in the elections 22 years ago, and even before that," Trukhachev told Sputnik. "Therefore, it is not surprising that such rallies are taking place in Budapest. Moreover, pro-Western voters live there, more looking to the outside world and less clinging to national roots and national traditions."
The US Democratic Party could be interested in removing Orban from politics, especially given his longstanding relation with Trump, according to Trukhachev. However, he ruled out an open color revolt scenario.
"Yes, they are trying to oust [Orban]. But they will still do this in more civilized ways than what happened in Ukraine [in 2014]. Hungary's membership in the European Union imposes certain restrictions here," the political scientist pointed out.
The EU and US have a lot on their plate due to the rise of Euroskeptics and right-wing parties ahead of the European elections, according to Sputnik's interlocutor. Trukhachev particularly referred to the outcome of the latest presidential elections in Slovakia where parliament speaker Peter Pellegrini, who opposes arms supplies to Ukraine, has come out on top. The development followed the election of another Ukraine-skeptic politician, Robert Fico, as Slovakia's prime minister last October.
In his annual State of the Nation address on February 17, Orban highlighted that 2024 "can be a watershed moment" for European politics. "Global politics could look completely different at the end of the year than what it was at the beginning," he said.
"Never has there been such a great distance between the politics of Brussels and the interests and will of Europeans. (…) The new right should not be an alternative to Europe, but a European alternative. This is how we should and must view the coming EU election."