Despite efforts to cancel, a pro-Russian march will be held in Budapest’s Freedom Square
Despite rumours of the pro-Russian march being cancelled by the organisers and Facebook’s attempts to delete the event, the march will still be held, but it will be organised in a different location in Budapest.
The event titled “Let’s express our solidarity with Russia” has stirred up quite a bit of emotion in Hungary as the Ukrainian minority immediately started protesting against the march planned to be held in the Hungarian capital on April 30th.
Great uproar
On paper, the Budapest Police Headquarters found nothing illegal during the inquiry into the permission request for the event and has given it a green light; however, the Ukrainian minority in Hungary, including Jaroszlava Hartyányi, a board member of the Ukrainian World Congress and a former representative of said minority, sent a written protest to the Hungarian Police, 24.hu reported.
In the document, she wrote that Russia launched an aggressive attack against Ukraine on 24 February. Ukrainians have every ground to defend themselves, and they are not attacking Russian cities.
Mrs Hartyányi added that the Russians are committing massacres against Ukrainians on the territories they keep under military control. The whole world protested against it, especially after seeing the mass graves in Bucha.
She highlighted that an unknown person started to organise a pro-Russian protest on Heroes’ Square. However, such an event would compromise both Hungary and Budapest.
“A pro-Russian march in Budapest would compromise the policy of the Hungarian government as well. Moreover, it would destroy Hungary’s solidarity, help, and aid towards Ukraine and the humanitarian support the country sent to the war-stricken country.”
The organisers’ take
In the original Facebook event, which has since been removed, the organisers listed four points as to why they wanted to organise the pro-Russian march:
- We stand with Russia, with the Russian civilians and athletes.
- We condemn war; the USA is responsible for the war.
- We condemn the anti-Russian sanctions of the USA and the EU. Because of the sanctions, Central Europe is becoming devastated, and we are facing a food and energy crisis.
- We are fed up with the lies of the USA, EU, and Ukraine.
They highlighted that they are fed up with the untrue statements of the media, the lies of Ukraine, the USA, and the European Union, adding that such marches already took place in Cyprus and Germany.
The march will be held despite efforts to cancel it
The pro-Russian march was originally planned to be held on Heroes’ Square in Budapest as a mixed procession of pedestrians, bikers, cars, and bicycles and has managed to attract around 2,000 people who were interested in the march and a few hundred who already signalled that they would be present.
One of the organisers is Zoltán P., who has possibly been part of a Russian cyberattack against the Hungarian Ministry of Defence a few years ago, Rtl reports.
Facebook deleted the organisers’ event page on Thursday and, according to one of the organisers called “Háborúmentes Hazugságmentes Tolvajmentes EU-t” (which translates to “for a war-free, lie-free, thief-free EU”), they have lost a total of about 3,000 people who were interested.
They posted that the event is not cancelled and that it will be held on April 30th at 2 p.m. at Szabadság tér (Freedom Square) in district V of Budapest.
Rtl found supporting evidence from the Budapest Police Headquarters that the organisers have not cancelled the event at the assembly authority, in this case the Hungarian police, and that the pro-Russian march is declared to be held on April 30th at the above-mentioned time and place.
Source: Daily News Hungary, Rtl.hu