Hundreds of thousands of Hungarians commemorated the 178th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution and War of Independence of 1848 on Sunday, 15 March, joining a Peace March to show support for Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán ahead of the upcoming election in April.
The Peace March, described by organizers as the ‘largest’ in the history of such gatherings, saw around 180,000 participants according to preliminary analysis based on mobile phone presence around Budapest’s Kossuth Square, Alkotmány Street, and nearby areas.
The massive crowd, the various ethnic national costumes reflecting Hungarian history, and the strong sense of unity resonated widely within conservative and right-wing circles across Europe and the broader West, with content related to the Peace March generating massive engagement on social media.
Several political leaders and commentators, as well as ordinary users, praised the Peace March and expressed support for Viktor Orbán by sharing content about the gathering across various social media platforms.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini congratulated Orbán in a post on X for the ‘extraordinary success’ of the demonstration for ‘peace and sovereignty’. ‘We are with you,’ Salvini wrote.
Likewise, the leader of the Flemish nationalist right-wing Vlaams Belang, Tom van Grieken, said he was impressed by the massive crowd gathered in Budapest. ‘What an impressive demonstration in Hungary for freedom, sovereignty, and identity,’ he wrote on X while sharing aerial footage of the march. He urged his followers not to believe European media claims that ‘Viktor Orbán is going to lose,’ adding that ‘resistance pays off’.
Harald Vilimsky, leader of the Austrian Freedom Party’s (FPÖ) delegation in the European Parliament and Vice President of Patriots for Europe (PfE), reposted Orbán’s speech with the caption: ‘We stand with you and the Hungarians.’
Leader of the Dutch Party of Freedom (PVV) Geert Wilders welcomed the Peace March in Hungarian, quoting one of Hungary’s most famous poets and freedom fighters, Sándor Petőfi: ‘Szabadság, szerelem! E kettő kell nekem,’ Wilders wrote on X.
Right-wing commentators and intellectuals were also impressed by the demonstration. ‘Peace belongs to the realists, to those who unite their nation to Christian civilization, not global liberalism,’ Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at The Catholic University of America and Co-Founder and Editor of postliberalorder.com Chad Pecknold wrote in a post on X. He added that the Left once ‘owned these sorts of demonstrations,’ but now ‘peace belongs to the Right.’
Author and Senior Writer at National Review Michael Brendan Dougherty argued that the Hungarian governing party Fidesz ‘has landed on an election season issue far more powerful than the influence of [George] Soros,’ stating that ‘peace is directly tied to cost of living’. ‘I wouldn’t put much stock in EU-funded polls,’ he concluded in his post on X, referring to surveys showing Orbán’s opposition ahead of the upcoming elections.
‘A defender of True Europe,’ Dutch conservative activist Eva Vlaardingerbroek wrote while sharing Orbán’s remarks.
Spanish right-wing political commentator Ada Lluch, who personally participated in the Peace March, praised Hungary for preserving what she described as the Europe that existed before mass migration reshaped the continent. ‘We need to reclaim our countries from the politicians who gave them away without our consent,’ she said.
During his commemoration speech, Orbán vowed to defend the achievements of the past 15 years in the upcoming election. ‘We will defend the family support programmes for mothers, we will defend our children, and we will not let our national flag be replaced by a Ukrainian or a rainbow flag. Long live Hungarian freedom!’ he declared, met with huge applause from the crowd.
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