Hungary will not send weapons to Ukraine and will remain neutral in the conflict, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a rally of his supporters on Tuesday, accusing the opposition of attempting to drag Hungary into the conflict on its eastern border.
The conservative nationalist leader faces a difficult struggle for re-election to a fourth consecutive term on April 3 since his right-wing Fidesz party will confront a united front of six opposition parties for the first time since 2010.
Orban’s re-election campaign has been complicated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has cast a new light on his decade-long tight relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin, prompting fierce condemnation from the opposition.
Orban told a rally of tens of thousands of supporters waving the Hungarian national flag in front of parliament that Central Europe was just a ‘chess board’ for great powers, and that if Hungary did not stand up for its interests, it might easily become a victim of the crisis.
“Russia considers Russian interests, whereas Ukraine considers Ukrainian interests. Neither the United States nor Brussels would conceive with the minds of Hungarians or feel with the hearts of Hungarians. We must advocate for our own interests “Orban stated.
‘We must stay out of this war… so we will not deploy troops or weapons to the battlefields.’
On April 3, voters will have an option between Orban’s peace party and the leftist opposition, which ‘would stagger into a brutal, lengthy, and bloody battle.’
The six-party opposition, led by Peter Marki-Zay, a small-town mayor and father of seven, has slammed Orban’s links with Russia, claiming that Orban has constructed an illiberal state on Putin’s model, with rampant corruption and restrictions on media freedoms. The charges are denied by the administration.
Marki-Zay, who has campaigned on a strongly pro-European platform, told an opposition rally along the Danube river that Hungarians’ choice in elections has never been this simple.
‘We only have one choice: Europe over the east… and freedom over tyranny,’ he added, as fans chanted ‘Europa, Europa.’
In response to European Union worries about a deterioration in democratic norms in Hungary, Marki-Zay stated that Orban’s ‘unlimited power has resulted in unlimited corruption,’ while millions of Hungarians struggle to make ends meet.
In a late February opinion poll conducted by Median, Fidesz increased its lead to 39 percent, compared to 32 percent for the opposition bloc.
Orban has criticised the Russian incursion and stated that Budapest will not veto EU measures imposed on Russia, but that these must not have an impact on Hungary’s energy supplies.
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