Latest news with #Orban
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
Orban's anti-Ukraine campaign targets political rival as Hungary's elections loom
As Hungary heads toward national elections next spring and the populist government's popularity slumps, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has zeroed in on a central theme he hopes will sway voters: an alleged threat posed by neighboring Ukraine. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now While most European Union countries have offered political, financial, and military support to Kyiv since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, Hungary under Orban has charted a starkly different course - refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons or allow their transit through Hungarian territory, demanding sanctions relief and rapprochement with Russia, and adopting a combative stance toward both Kyiv and its EU backers. With his ruling Fidesz party slipping in the polls and a new opposition force gaining momentum, Orban has escalated a sweeping anti-Ukraine campaign - presenting the upcoming election as a referendum on peace or war. Going further, he has accused his leading political opponent of entering into a treasonous pact with Kyiv to overthrow his government and install a pro-Western, pro-Ukraine administration. Orban opposes Ukraine's accession to the EU Some of his ideas mirror the growing anti-Ukraine messaging coming from right-wing populists in the West, including from President Donald Trump. "Let's be under no illusions: Brussels and Ukraine are jointly building up a puppet government (in Hungary)," Orban said on June 6 in comments to state radio. "They want to change Hungary's policy toward Ukraine after the next elections, or even sooner." At the heart of Orban's claims is Ukraine's ambition to join the EU, something Kyiv believes would place it firmly within the embrace of the West and provide a measure of security against potential Russian attacks in the future. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now While Orban was a firm supporter of Ukraine's eventual EU accession shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion, he now argues that its membership - which will likely take many years - would flood Hungary with crime, cheap labor, and low-quality agricultural products, threatening national sovereignty and economic stability. He has also spuriously claimed that Brussels and Kyiv intend to force Hungarians to fight Russia on the front lines. On Monday, Orban posted a video to his social media page depicting animated, artificial intelligence-generated scenes of bloodied, machine-gun wielding Hungarian soldiers engaged in armed conflict, and rows of caskets lined beneath Hungarian flags. "We don't want our children, in the form of the Hungarian army, to be deployed to the Ukrainian front lines or to Ukrainian territory and to come back in coffins," he said in the video. Campaign targets the main opposition leader Central to Orban's life-or-death narrative of the Hungarian election is his growing campaign against his main political rival, Peter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider whose new Tisza party has surged in popularity. Once married to Hungary's former justice minister, Magyar has become the most formidable challenger to Orban's rule since the EU's longest-serving leader took office in 2010. With Tisza leading Fidesz in most independent polls, some analysts and domestic critics believe Orban may be laying the groundwork to discredit or even disqualify Magyar ahead of the 2026 election. Peter Kreko, director of the Budapest-based Political Capital think tank, said Orban's attempt to link Magyar and Tisza to the image of a dangerous Ukraine is aimed at neutralizing his domestic opposition as popular sentiment appears to be turning against him. "There is an ongoing campaign against any critical voices in Hungary saying that they are agents of Ukraine, and this can be used also against the Tisza party," he told The Associated Press. "If you can't win back public opinion anymore, then you can try to use a more authoritarian toolkit." Beyond political rhetoric, such accusations have reached the highest levels of diplomacy. In May, Ukraine's main security agency said that it had arrested two people on suspicion of spying for Hungary by gathering intelligence on Ukraine's military defenses in the west of the country. That set off a tit-for-tat series of diplomatic expulsions, and accusations from Hungary's government that the affair was part of a concerted Ukrainian campaign involving Magyar and his party to undermine Orban. The prime minister accused Magyar and Tisza of being "pro-Ukrainian" and supporting Ukraine's EU bid, and alleging that a prominent Tisza member, the former chief of staff of the Hungarian military, has "deep ties with Ukrainian intelligence." No evidence has been provided to support the claims, which Magyar has dismissed outright. "It is outrageous and blood-boiling when a patriot who trained and prepared to be a soldier since the age of 14 and who took a military oath ... is accused of treason by people who would sell their country out," Magyar told a news conference on June 5. Ukraine pushes back To reinforce its message, the Hungarian government launched a state-funded communication blitz in March, accompanied by a non-binding "national consultation" on Ukraine's EU membership. Billboards, television ads, and social media posts have flooded the country, portraying Ukrainian President and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as the architects of a plot to undermine, or even destroy Hungary. "They would bring Ukraine into the EU, but we would pay the price!" reads one poster. "Let's vote no!" Ukrainian officials have been restrained in reacting to the Hungarian campaign. But in an interview published last week in Hungarian outlet Valasz Online, Zelenskyy criticized the government's use of his face as part of its media barrage, and accused Orban of being "anti-Ukrainian and anti-European." "He is using this in his domestic policy: he wants to turn the war in Ukraine to his own advantage in the elections. That is dishonest," Zelenskyy said. In a post on X on Tuesday, Ukraine's foreign ministry also pushed back on Hungary's accusations. "The Hungarian government's communication line, which demonizes Ukraine and President Zelenskyy, has gone off the rails," the ministry's spokesman, Heorhii Tykhyi, wrote. "We don't see Hungary demanding that Russia accept a ceasefire ... They remain silent when principled action is needed and make baseless accusations when diplomacy is required."
Yomiuri Shimbun
8 hours ago
- Politics
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Hungarian Police Ban Budapest Pride March, Citing Protection of Children
Reuters file photo People attend the Budapest Pride march in Budapest, Hungary, July 23, 2022. BUDAPEST, June 19 (Reuters) – Hungarian police said on Thursday that they were banning the Budapest Pride march of the LGBTQ+ community planned for June 28, despite the city's mayor saying it was a municipal event that requires no permits from authorities. Hungary's parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, citing the protection of children. It also lets police use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend. Budapest's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony tried to circumvent the law when he announced on Monday that since the Budapest Pride march will be a municipal event 'no permits from authorities are needed'. Budapest metropolitan police, however, said the law applied to the event organised by the mayor and banned it. The police ban has 'no relevance' as authorities were not officially notified of the plans for the event, Karacsony said on Facebook. 'The Metropolitan Municipality will host the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration on June 28, the day of Hungarian freedom, as a municipal event. Period,' the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest. Orban faces a challenging election in 2026 where a new surging opposition party poses a threat to his rule. His government has a Christian conservative agenda and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community has aimed to please Fidesz's core voters, mostly in the countryside. Orban said in February that organisers should not even bother organising Pride in Budapest this year.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
White House Fumes at ‘Ugly' Sculpture Mocking ‘Dictator' Trump's Birthday Parade
The White House has issued a scathing response to a statue erected on the National Mall to protest President Donald Trump's military birthday parade. Titled 'Dictator Approved,' the 8-foot-tall sculpture features a gold-painted hand giving a thumbs up while crushing the Statue of Liberty's verdigris crown. Its base is decorated with four plaques highlighting quotes from authoritarian leaders praising Trump. According to a permit for the installation issued by the National Park Service, the piece was meant as a rebuke to Trump's June 14 parade celebrating the Army's 250th anniversary—which coincided with Trump's 79th birthday, The Washington Post reported. The parade 'feature[ed] imagery similar to autocratic, oppressive regimes' like North Korea, Russia, and China, the statue's creators—who so far haven't been identified—wrote in the application. 'If these Democrat activists were living in a dictatorship, their eye-sore of a sculpture wouldn't be sitting on the National Mall right now,' Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman, wrote to the Post an emailed statement. 'In the United States of America you have the freedom to display your so-called 'art,' no matter how ugly it is,' she added. The plaques on the base quote Russian President Vladimir Putin saying, 'President Trump is a very bright and talented man,' and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban saying, 'The most respected, the most feared person is Donald Trump.' A glowing quote from former Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro says, 'We do have a great deal of shared values. I admire President Trump.' And North Korea's Kim Jong Un is quoted as saying the phrases, 'Your excellency,' 'A 'special relationship' and, 'The extraordinary courage of President Trump.' The statue can stay up through Sunday, according to the National Parks Service permit. The style and materials used are similar to protest artworks put up around Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Oregon, and New York last fall. One of those pieces depicted a pile of poop left on former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)'s desk in mock 'tribute' to the Jan. 6 rioters who stormed and defiled the Capitol building in an attempt to overturn Trump's 2020 election defeat. Trump's $45 million military parade drew thin crowds and was poorly attended even by Republicans, though the president declared it a 'tremendous success.' Critics accused the president—who insisted on having tanks rolling through the streets of D.C.—of staging a Soviet-style event and using the troops as political pawns. The event coincided with millions of Americans protesting his administration at 'No Kings' rallies nationwide.
RTÉ News
19 hours ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
Green Party leader to attend Pride parade in Budapest despite ban
Green Party leader Roderic O'Gorman has said that he will travel to Hungary to attend the Budapest pride parade on 28 June after Hungarian police said they are banning the parade. The march, which would be the city's 30th pride parade festival, is organised in support of the LGBTQI+ community, and had been planned for 28 June. "The police, acting within their authority over public assemblies, prohibit the holding of the assembly at the aforementioned location and time," the police said in a statement published on their website. They added that the decision could be appealed within three days at the country's supreme court. However, Budapest's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony vowed to hold the march, despite the police ban. "Given that the municipality did not make its announcement within the framework of the law on gatherings, this interdiction has no value," he wrote on his Facebook page. He added: "Budapest city hall will organise the Budapest pride march on June 28 as a city event. Period." Speaking this afternoon, Mr O'Gorman said that the police move is the "most egregious attack" on the LGBTQI+ community seen in decades. "This is a very explicit erosion of the rights of the LGBTI+ community in Hungary. "It's an absolute attempt to silence them by their government. It's a clear breach of human rights. "And that's why it's important that elected reps from all over Europe rally around Hungarians, rally around people in Hungary who see this for what it is and support them at the Budapest parade this year," said Mr O'Gorman. Hungary's parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQI+ marches, citing the protection of children. Mr Orban's government has a Christian conservative agenda and has been fielding an intensifying campaign against the LGBTQI+ community. It also pushed through constitutional changes in April stipulating that Hungary recognises only two sexes, male and female. Mr Orban previously said that organisers "should not even bother" organising pride in Budapest this year. Mr O'Gorman that the Hungarian government of Mr Orban "has been scapegoating the LGBTI+ community now for many years, and what they've done now is one further escalation".
Straits Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Hungarian police ban Budapest Pride march, citing protection of children
BUDAPEST - Hungarian police said on Thursday that they were banning the Budapest Pride march of the LGBTQ+ community planned for June 28, despite the city's mayor saying it was a municipal event that requires no permits from authorities. Hungary's parliament, in which Prime Minister Viktor Orban's right-wing Fidesz Party has a big majority, passed legislation in March that created a legal basis for police to ban LGBTQ marches, citing the protection of children. It also lets police use facial recognition cameras to identify people who attend. Budapest's liberal mayor Gergely Karacsony tried to circumvent the law when he announced on Monday that since the Budapest Pride march will be a municipal event "no permits from authorities are needed". Budapest metropolitan police, however, said the law applied to the event organised by the mayor and banned it. The police ban has "no relevance" as authorities were not officially notified of the plans for the event, Karacsony said on Facebook. "The Metropolitan Municipality will host the Budapest Pride Freedom Celebration on June 28, the day of Hungarian freedom, as a municipal event. Period," the mayor wrote. Tens of thousands of people are expected to attend the protest. Orban faces a challenging election in 2026 where a new surging opposition party poses a threat to his rule. His government has a Christian conservative agenda and its intensifying campaign against the LGBTQ community has aimed to please Fidesz's core voters, mostly in the countryside. Orban said in February that organisers should not even bother organising Pride in Budapest this year. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.
