PM Orbán opens the last week of the campaign
June 4th, 2024Despite their diverging judgements on the contents of the Prime Minister’s speech, commentators agree in describing the Budapest ‘peace march’ on Saturday as an impressive show of strength.
Addressing the faithful on Margaret Island on Saturday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Europe must be prevented from rushing into war, and its own destruction. ’We are the biggest peace corps, the largest peacekeeping force in Europe’, he added.
On 444, pro-government political scientist Ágoston Sámuel Mráz describes the Prime Minister’s speech in front of a huge crowd of supporters as a successful move to mobilise his constituency before next Sunday’s European Parliamentary election. Liberal analyst Gábor Horn, on the other hand, says Mr Orbán is building an alternative reality for his folks according to which all European leaders are warmongers, except himself.
In Népszava, Gábor Czene accuses the Prime Minister of fomenting a completely groundless war hysteria in order to stay in power. He believes the admittedly large crowd on Saturday fell short of the several hundred thousand participants expected by the government side.
In Magyar Nemzet, László Szentesi Zöldi asserts that the Prime Minister’s speech was attended by several hundred thousand Hungarians. He hopes the result of the election will send an undisputable message to the opposition which now tries to belittle the number of government supporters.
In Mandiner, Dániel Kacsoh sees the Saturday rally as proof that the government side has pulled itself together and has regained its power to set the agenda of the political debate in Hungary. He finds their message clear and convincing: the European mainstream, he writes, is drifting towards an escalating war, while Hungary’s Prime Minister urges a ceasefire and peace talks over Ukraine.
Tags: elections, Orbán, Peace Walk