Tens of thousands of protesters rally at concert calling for Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban to be ousted after 16 years as he trails in election polls
More than 100,000 people gathered in Budapest on Friday for a concert urging citizens to vote for Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
More than 50 bands, all of whom used their music to express their opposition to Mr Orban’s nationalist-populist government, played one song each at the seven-hour ‘system-breaking’ concert.
The crowd, mostly young people, frequently chanted ‘Ruszkik haza!’ He shouted anti-government slogans, including: or ‘The Russians are returning home!’
It was a refrain from Hungary’s anti-Soviet revolution in 1956 and has taken on renewed importance as Mr. Orban forges increasingly closer ties with Moscow.
The concert took place just two days before the Hungarian elections, in which Orban is trailing in the polls despite a glowing endorsement from US Vice President JD Vance.
The Hungarian Prime Minister, a right-wing nationalist who has been in power for 16 years, is supported by just 30 percent of voters, compared with 39 percent who support his rival Peter Magyar, according to a poll published Thursday.
His declining popularity has prompted a major intervention by Vance, who traveled to Budapest on Tuesday as a last-ditch effort to shore up his support.
People attend the so-called ‘Rendszerbonto’ (“Destruction of the System”) concert organized by the citizen resistance movement and featuring more than 40 artists in Heroes’ Square in Budapest on April 10, 2026, two days before the general election.
More than 100,000 people attended the event. Picture: The band Elefant performing in Heroes’ Square
People wear hats depicting opposition leader Peter Magyar at Friday’s concert
Standing next to Orban, the US Vice President said he was in the Hungarian capital ‘to help him in this campaign cycle’.
Vance and his wife were welcomed in Budapest by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. Szijjártó said that Orban’s warm friendship with Donald Trump has created a ‘new golden age’ in relations.
The vice president launched a scathing attack on the EU and Ukraine, accusing the EU of trying to rig elections against Orban.
He said the EU ‘presided over one of the worst examples of foreign election interference I have ever seen or even read about because they hate this guy’.
He also said that ‘one of the reasons’ for his visit was that ‘the interference from the Brussels bureaucracy is truly shameful’.
Helena Sugar, 19, who attended Friday’s concert, said some of her favorite artists were impressed by the event, but the most important purpose of the concert was the desire for change.
‘I listen to these artists every day. “But now the most important thing here is the political goal,” he said.
‘I think it’s important to show how many of us think that way, how many of us think that the time for this system is over and it’s time for us to change.’
A young man holds a photo of Viktor Orban in Heroes’ Square during an anti-government concert in Budapest, Hungary
The group organizing the event, the Civil Resistance Movement, wrote that every song to be played was ‘critical of the corrupt regime’ and was meant to ‘demonstrate to the electorate and make them realize that the era of impunity is over’.
The large attendance and anti-government atmosphere of the concert in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square reflected widespread dissatisfaction with Mr. Orban’s government, especially among Hungary’s youth.
In addition to the crowds of people on the streets, more than 100,000 people were following the live broadcast online.
The generation gap is widening in Hungary, where young people overwhelmingly push for an end to Orban’s autocratic rule, while the oldest citizens remain loyal to the prime minister.
The decline in popularity of Mr. Orban and his Fidesz party comes amid an economic recession, political and corruption scandals and the rise of a new opposition rival who poses the biggest threat to the prime minister’s power in almost two decades.
That rival, the centre-right Tisza party and its leader Peter Magyar, has galvanized large numbers of voters in Hungary who see him as the most credible challenger yet to Mr Orban’s 16-year rule.
A recent survey by pollster 21 Research Center found that 65 percent of voters under 30 support Tisza, while only 14 percent support Mr. Orban.
Concertgoer Noel Ivan, 22, said he emigrated from Hungary to Austria in search of a better life but ‘wants to go back and plan his future at home, which is currently hopeless and deeply saddening’.
LED screen in Heroes’ Square shows Viktor Orban’s face
During the free concert, a person holds a sign depicting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin as a Matryoshka doll
He added that although he does not consider himself a conservative, he wants to ‘contribute to regime change by voting for the Tisza party’.
Friday’s performers included some of Hungary’s most popular artists: singer Azahriah, rappers Beton.Hofi and Krubi, and alternative rock bands Quimby and Ivan and the Parasol.
Another artist, Benedek Szabo, lead singer and chief songwriter of the popular band Galaxisok, told the Associated Press that for him Hungary’s increasingly close ties with Moscow are tantamount to “selling out its EU allies to Russia.”
‘Everyone is fed up and everyone is finally ready to change this system, to finally send a message,’ he said.
‘Not only today, but also the day after tomorrow, we are fed up and want to belong to Europe.’
Galaxisok performed a song lamenting what the band saw as missed opportunities and wasted years under Mr. Orban’s rule.
