Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar outdrew Prime Minister Viktor Orban at dueling rallies that underscored the changing political landscape a year before elections.

Tens of thousands braved drizzly weather to pack Budapest’s iconic Andrassy Avenue for Magyar’s rally on the March 15 revolution day, compared to the few thousand who attended a vitriolic Orban speech earlier in the day in another part of the capital.

Magyar, a former insider in Orban’s circle who formed a political party in 2024, has capitalized on a cost-of-living crisis and allegations of widespread corruption. His Tisza party has a nine-point lead among decided voters, according to a Median poll this week, while a Publicus survey on Friday had Orban’s Fidesz trailing by two points.

“We refuse to be afraid in our homeland,” Magyar, 43, said hours after Orban compared his opponents to bugs he’d crush. “We’re the spring, we’re the change, we’re the humane face of Hungary.”

Earlier in the day, Orban, who’s been in power since 2010, downplayed the decline in his popularity. He cast the European Union, as he has for years, as an “empire” bent on ousting him and “colonizing” Hungary. The bloc channeled tens of billions of euros to Hungary until suspending payments in late 2022 over graft and rule of law concerns.

Magyar pledged to set up an anti-corruption agency and to imprison those who misappropriate public funds, stripping them of their accumulated assets. He said he’d also appoint new leaders to helm the courts, the police and the prosecutor’s office.

Even for a leader who’s gained notoriety for pushing the boundaries of political discourse, Orban on Saturday broke new ground.

“They’ve been here for too long, they’ve survived for too long,” the 61-year-old Orban said, lashing out at journalists, judges and civil society activists whom he compared to bugs. “We’ve had enough of them.”

Last month Orban pledged to “sweep out” foreign-funded independent civil society and media organizations. This week, his lawmakers proposed a constitutional amendment to suspend the Hungarian citizenship of those with multiple passports and who are deemed to threaten national sovereignty — an unprecedented move in an EU nation.

“I am not a Tisza member but I will definitely vote for them as they represent the only chance to replace the ugliness that this country has become,” Andrea Tarrone, an environmental activist, said at Magyar’s rally.

Orban is turning to the full arsenal of tools at his disposal to turn around his political fortunes, including fiscal largess and the threat of repression.

He recently announced lifetime income tax exemptions for mothers with at least two children, pushed for large wage hikes, and is curbing the profit margin of retailers to try to stem soaring food costs.

Freewheeling spending ahead of the previous election in 2022 ended up fueling the fastest inflation in the EU and pushed the forint to the edge of a currency crisis. Orban has vowed to stop short of that this time.

To mobilize voters, the pro-Russia Orban has announced a non-binding referendum against Ukraine’s EU accession. The premier is campaigning on a message that Ukraine joining the bloc would “ruin” Hungary economically. That may resonate in a country still battling surging prices, and which has dipped into a recession every other year since 2020.

Not to be outdone, Magyar announced his own parallel, non-binding referendum. While heavy on promises of tax cuts, the 13 questions notably include whether Ukraine should join the EU and whether Hungary should remain part of the trading bloc as well as the NATO military alliance.

The move seeks to undercut Orban’s effort to use such surveys — which in the past have attracted mostly Orban’s core supporters and tended to validate his positions — as the expression of Hungarian people. Magyar said he believed “Hungary’s place is in a strong Europe.”

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