Saturday’s political rally started with a warm up “peace march” organized by the controversial Civil Unity Forum (Civil Osszefogas Forum, or COF). COF is led by pro-government publicist Tamas Fricz and Dr. Laszlo Csizmadia, the government official responsible for overseeing state subsidies to NGOs.

The peace march began at the newly remodeled Kossuth Square in front of Hungary’s Parliament building just after 1pm. Nearly half a million Fidesz supporterssupporters marched along Bajcsy-Zsilinszky Street toward the intersection of Andrassy Avenue, and continued along Andrassy Avenue until arriving at Heroes’ Square.

Budapest’s M1 metro, the historic metro line which runs the length of Andrassy Avenue, was out of commission between the hours of 1pm and 4pm, leaving tourists and local residents wishing to travel along Andrassy little choice but to participate in the “peace march”.

According to Gabor Szeles, owner of Hungarian bus manufacturer Ikarus and far-right EchoTV, some 400 buses were used to shuttle rally-goers from all over Hungary to the country’s capital for the event.

Szeles had hoped a million people would participate in Saturday’s “peach march” led by him and other prominent Fidesz supporterssupporters and publicists. Hungary’s Ministry of the Interior put the total number of participants between approximately 440,000-460,000. Nevertheless, nearly half a million people thronging Andrassy Avenue made for an impressive sight.

Fidesz director of communications Mate Kocsis served as the Fidesz election rally’s master of ceremonies. Kocsis opened the event by welcoming the winners of X-Faktor (a televised music competition broadcast on RTL Klub) Csaba Vastag and Tamas Vastag onto the stage for a musical performance.

French politician and European People’s Party President MEP Joseph Daul addressed those in attendance in his native tongue. Daul expressed his firm belief in Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s commitment to democracy and European ideals, and also remarked on the symbolism of holding the rally at Heroes’ Square – the very same place where Viktor Orban entered the political arena just out of college 25 years earlier after the fall of communism.

MEP Daul’s tribute to Orban was followed by a musical performance by acclaimed Hungarian folk music band Csik zenekar.

Istvan Pasztor, President of the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians greeted rally-attendees on behalf of Serbia’s ethnic Hungarian community. Pasztor thanked Hungary for the support shown to Serbia’s ethnic Hungarians and called on his audience to remember those Hungarians who have spent the last 90 years living as minorities in neighboring countries as a result of the Treaty Trianon which partitioned lands belonging to the Kingdom of Hungary in the wake of World World I. Pasztor said these Hungarians have spent these years struggling, and praised the Hungarian government for “validating” the self-identity of ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary’s borders by providing them the monumental opportunity to vote in Hungary’s upcoming elections. Pasztor encouraged Hungarians around the world to vote for Fidesz this Sunday.

A musical performance by Balkan Fanatik followed.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban then took the stage to thunderous applause. He began his speech by thanking the “peace march” participants for coming to the rally “from all corners of our country, Debrecen to Sopron, Kezdivasarhely (Târgu Secuiesc, Romania) to Szabadka (Subotica, Serbia), Beregszasz (Berehove, Ukraine) to Komarom (Komarno, Slovakia).”

Orban said that the event was Hungary’s way of saying that it wants another four years of the current Fidesz-KDNP government.

Orban confessed that he felt like that moment was the proper time to be honest and candid with Hungarians, and he expressed his appreciation for the opportunity to serve his country.

“Together,” Orban said, “we have transformed and renewed the country. Together we have modernized and streamlined the country. We have turned our broken down, stalling, flat-tired vehicle into a fool-proof, fast, and valiant race car. Teetering on the verge of bankruptcy, with no self-respect and no confidence, our country in decline was transformed into a nation that grows stronger day by day, transformed into a nation which has had its self-respect and confidence restored, a nation worthy of its old glory, a nation standing before a magnificent future.”

“It all started when we assembled here 25 years ago. Everything started here. Hungary’s quest for freedom began here in this square. This is the place where we looked the world in its eyes and declared that we will scorn those who are traitors to our country and that we will scorn those who join the ranks of our foreign occupiers. This is the place where we told the world that never again will we allow them to take away and bury our future.

“It is no mistake that we meet here today. The spirit of Heroes’ Square gives us strength and is binding. This place is governed by the spirits of those who stood firm and did not give in to their own fears or the stronger powers. This is what we want, too. We want this square to remind us of when we were young and determined, we want this place to remind us that for over twenty years we fought honorably against the ruthless. To remind us that whenever we moved forward, the old comrades always appeared and set us back into the past.

“We must remember that this happened for twenty years. But let us also remember that those of us who are here never once gave up, we enjoyed glorious victories and we also suffered painful defeat. We never ran away when we were defeated, we did not disband, and we did not look for an escape route. We stayed together and waited in the mud for the right moment. After twenty years, when everybody was fed up with being pulled apart, when everybody was fed up with the old comrades, we came together and held a revolution in April 2010–a constitutional revolution.”

The full text of Orban’s speech can be read here.

Source: The Budapest Beacon

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