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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán declared that Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary elections represent a choice between peace and war, casting his government as the guarantor of stability.
Orbán made the remarks at a rally in central Budapest marking Hungary’s national day, which commemorates the country’s 1848 revolution against Habsburg rule.
Hungary goes to the polls on the 12th of April in a vote widely regarded as the most serious challenge to Orbán’s grip on power since he took office in 2010.
Péter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza Party, is currently ahead of Orbán’s Fidesz in opinion polls.
Orbán said Brussels and Kyiv seek to unseat him
Orbán also accused Ukraine of interfering in the electoral campaign, alleging that Kyiv was siding with the opposition and the European Union in an effort to unseat him.
Budapest and Kyiv are locked in a bitter dispute over the shutdown of the Druzhba pipeline, which carries discounted Russian oil to Hungary via Ukraine. Budapest has blocked the EU’s €50 billion loan package to Ukraine until the pipeline is restored.
The row has also taken on a personal dimension, with sharp exchanges between Orbán and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Do you see this, Ukrainians? Do you see this, Zelenskyy? This is the thousand-year-old Hungarian state. And you think you can scare us with an oil blockade, blackmail and threats against our leaders? Be smart and stop this,” Orbán said.
Campaign overshadowed by diplomatic spat with Ukraine
Last week, Zelenskyy said he would allow his troops to phone a European leader who was blocking EU aid to Ukraine, a statement the Hungarian government condemned as a direct threat to Orbán.
“Don’t you have enough trouble on the eastern front? Why did you attack us? We are a peace-loving people. Give us our oil, and then roll your vans to Brussels for Westerners’ money,” Orbán said, in an apparent reference to the seizure of two Ukrainian cash-transport vehicles near Budapest a fortnight ago.
Hungary raided two Ukrainian vehicles from Ukraine’s Oschadbank, and confiscated $40m, €35m, and 9kg of gold in a money laundering probe. Ukraine said the transport was legal and accused Hungary of state terrorism. The incident triggered a diplomatic dispute between the two countries.
Orbán frames elections as choice between peace and war
Framing the vote as existential, Orbán portrayed the upcoming elections as a stark choice between peace and war. He frequently depicts the European Union as a pro-war bloc that is escalating the conflict in Ukraine through financial support and talk of deploying ground troops.
“It is time for Kyiv and Brussels to understand that our sons will not die for Ukraine, they will live for Hungary,” Orbán said.
“We must choose who should form a government, me or Zelenskyy? I offer myself, with due modesty,” he added.
Orbán also alleged that both Ukraine and the EU have a vested interest in a change of government in Hungary, and called on his Fidesz party to outperform its result from four years ago, setting a target of at least three million votes.