Tens of thousands of Hungarians rallied in support of Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest on Tuesday with the conservative nationalist leader facing a tight race for election to a fourth consecutive term on April 3.
For the first time since 2010, Orban and his right-wing Fidesz party will face a united front of six opposition parties at the polls. Fidesz slightly widened its lead in a late February poll by Median to 39% compared with 32% for the opposition bloc.
Orban's path to re-election is complicated by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has put his decade-long close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a new light, drawing sharp criticism from the opposition.
Orban has said Hungary's ties with Russia were "balanced and fair" until the very recent past but this had changed, adding that Hungary condemned the Russian invasion. He said Budapest would not veto European Union sanctions against Russia but that these must not affect Hungary's energy supplies.
Also confronted by a surge in inflation to its highest in nearly 15 years, Orban's government has imposed price caps on some basic foods, fuel and mortgages, extending controls already in place on household energy.
Organizers brought people into Budapest from the countryside in fleets of buses for Tuesday's rally, which coincided with a national holiday commemorating Hungary's 1848 revolution.
Orban was due to speak to the crowd at around 1400 GMT in front of the parliament building.
"I came (here)...as we have to show that we are united, and Hungary is holding out as an island against the Western loss of morals," said 23-year-old demonstrator Emese Haraszti.
"The current Hungarian government is the only one amongst the political choices we have in Hungary now...that stands up for Christian and conservative values in a way I think is important."
Asked about Orban's close relations with Putin, she said, "It is right that we have good relations with everyone."
Opposition parties planned their own rally in Budapest starting at 1400 GMT on Tuesday with their leader Peter Marki-Zay, a small-town mayor and Catholic father of seven, speaking.
Referring to European Union concern about a decline in democratic standards in Hungary, Marki-Zay has said Orban's "unlimited power has resulted in unlimited corruption" while millions of Hungarians struggle to make ends meet.
