More Than 100,000 People Protested Against Orban In Budapest

• 11.04.2026, 17:13

Against the backdrop of Orban forging ever-closer relations with Moscow.

On the evening of Friday, April 10, more than 100,000 people filled a huge square and surrounding avenues in Budapest to attend a concert featuring dozens of Hungary's most popular performers, urging citizens to vote Sunday and oust the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, AP reported.

More than 50 bands, all of whose performers used their music to express opposition to Orban's government, performed one song each during a seven-hour It was a refrain from Hungary's 1956 anti-Soviet revolution that took on new meaning as Orban forged ever-closer relations with Moscow.

One concert attendee said she was drawn to the event by some of her favorite performers, but the concert's main purpose was to push for change.

- I listen to these performers every day. But right now the most important thing here is the political goal. I think it's important to show how many of us think the same way, how many of us believe that the time of this system is over and it's time for change," she said.

The group that organized the event, the Civic Resistance Movement, noted that each song to be performed was "critical of the corrupt regime" and aimed to "demonstrate to the broad masses of voters and make them realize that the era of impunity is over."

The performers on Friday included some of Hungary's most popular artists: singer Azaria, rappers Beton.Hofi and Krúbi, and alternative rock bands Quimby and Ivan and the Parasol.

The latest polls ahead of Hungary's parliamentary elections show opposition party Tisza's Peter Madjar ahead of Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz by 9, 11 and 13 percentage points in various categories.