Thousands march in Budapest to support Orbán amid election challenges

Описание: (23 Oct 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Budapest, Hungary - 23 October 2025
1. Various of demonstration is support of Prime Minister Viktor Orban
2. Mid of demonstrator with a t-shirt depicting Orban
3. Wide of crowd marching
4. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Babett Lugosi, government supporter:
"We don't need Brussels telling us what to do. We, and every other country, are the only ones capable of representing our own interests, and there's a very big problem if others are telling us how to live our everyday lives.”
5. Wide of people shouting “Viktor, Viktor!”
6. Mid of demonstrator wearing a scarf depicting Orban
7. Wide of crowd marching
8. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Babett Lugosi, government supporter:
"He is currently the only one who has stood strong for decades. I'm amazed by his strength and bravery and willingness to act. For all this time, they've never been able to break him and I hope they never will. He's our only hope.”
9. Various of marching crowd
10. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Zoltán Molnár, government supporter:
"I don't want to be in the same situation as my parents generation, losing their brothers and children in a war. I think everyone would like to avoid that, and anyone with common sense doesn't want war or for their own children to die innocently on the front.”
11. Various of marching crowd
12. SOUNDBITE (Hungarian) Sándor Kerekes, government supporter:
“It’s important for us to feel like we can meet with like-minded people, that we think the same things and think with unity”
13. Wide of crowd
14. Wide of demonstrators marching
STORYLINE:
Thousands of Hungarians congregated on the streets of Budapest on Thursday in a show of force on behalf of their leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who six months ahead of parliamentary elections looks set to face the most competitive ballot in his 15 years in power.

The gathering, dubbed a "peace march” by organizers, came on Hungary’s October 23 national holiday, a remembrance of a failed anti-Soviet uprising in 1956 that was crushed by the Red Army.

Marchers shouted slogans backing Orbán and his message that Hungary is at risk of becoming directly involved in Russia's war in 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.

Orbán, considered Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest partner in the European Union, has consistently argued against Western support for neighboring Ukraine since Moscow's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

In contrast to nearly every other EU leader, he has maintained warm relations with the Kremlin while taking a combative posture toward Kyiv. He has argued for an immediate cease fire in the conflict, though he has not addressed what that might imply for Ukraine's territorial integrity or European security amid continuing Russian aggression.

Orbán on Thursday was set to deliver a speech to his supporters following the march.

Later in the day, supporters of Orbán’s main political challenger, Péter Magyar, were expected to gather in central Budapest for their own demonstration — both an anti-government protest and a show of force behind Magyar and his center-right Tisza party.

The dueling marches were seen as a barometer of which politician had more energy behind his campaign as elections near.

Orbán, in power since 2010, is lagging in the polls behind Magyar’s Tisza, and with six months before the ballot, the Hungarian leader has sought to reinvigorate his base.



Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter:   / ap_archive  
Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​
Instagram:   / apnews  


You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...