DEBRECEN, Hungary, May 6, (AP): A rising challenger to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held what he called the largest countryside political demonstration in the country’s recent history on Sunday, the latest stop on his campaign tour that has mobilized thousands across Hungary’s rural heartland.
Some 10,000 people gathered in Debrecen, Hungary’s second-largest city, in support of Péter Magyar, a political newcomer who in less than three months has shot to prominence on pledges to bring an end to problems like official corruption and a declining quality of life in the Central European country.
Supporters endured a brief but unexpected rain shower ahead of the afternoon demonstration, turning the city's central square into a sea of umbrellas. They waved Hungarian flags bearing the names of towns and villages across the country from which they had come.
"Today, the vast majority of the Hungarian people are tired of the ruling elite, of the hatred, apathy, propaganda and artificial divides,” Magyar told the crowd. "Hungarians today want cooperation, love, unity and peace.”
Magyar, a former insider within Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party, has since February denounced the nationalist Orbán as running an entrenched "mafia state,” and declared war on what he calls a propaganda machine run by the government.
His party, TISZA (Respect and Freedom), has announced it will run 12 candidates in June 9 European Union elections, with Magyar appearing first on the party list. TISZA has also announced it will run four candidates in local council elections in the capital Budapest.
His appearance on Sunday in Debrecen, a stronghold of Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, reflected the focus his fledgling campaign has placed on the Hungarian countryside, where Orbán is popular.