BUDAPEST, Oct 23, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Hungary's government and opposition will hold rival rallies in Budapest on Thursday, each looking to drum up support ahead of tense elections next year.

A "peace march" by supporters of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and an opposition gathering later the same day come as US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said last week they plan to hold a summit in the Hungarian capital.

Although Trump said Tuesday he had shelved the planned summit for now, the announcement has strengthened the hand of Orban, who has hailed the potential meeting.

With national elections due next April, government supporters will gather in a park for a march across a bridge over the Danube to parliament, in front of which the nationalist premier is slated to give a speech.

Opposition leader Peter Magyar, who has been mounting an unprecedented challenge to Orban's 15-year premiership, has also called for a "national march" in Budapest, which he will address later Thursday.

Gatherings in support of the ruling Fidesz party, dubbed "peace marches" even before Russia's war in Ukraine and Hungary's self-proclaimed pacifism, have routinely occurred before elections since Orban's return to power in 2010.

This time, the rally coincides with a national day commemorating Hungary's 1956 anti-Soviet uprising, crushed by Moscow with overwhelming force.

- 'Stars aligned for Orban' -

Later Thursday, Orban, who has sought close ties with his "dear friend" Trump and Putin despite Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, will head to Brussels for an EU summit on support for Kyiv.

Keeping the public focus on the war is considered helpful for the ruling party, with Orban portraying himself as a peacemonger and accusing Brussels' policies of fuelling the fighting.

"The stars are aligned favourably for Orban," Agoston Mraz, head of pro-government Nezopont Institute think tank, told AFP, noting that the premier has long been arguing for a US-Russia deal to end the conflict.

And even if there is no breakthrough, Orban's position will be strengthened, because he "can claim he has done everything in his power" to bring an end to the war, Mraz added.

"When it comes to peace in Ukraine, the government has support far beyond Fidesz's core base," he said.

Magyar, who has become more critical of Russia in recent months, has welcomed a potential Budapest summit, stressing that peace is "not just a campaign slogan" for his party.

But he warned that "genuine peace" is only possible if all parties involved respect "the independence and security of countries".

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto insisted on the summit plans in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

He blamed "the pro-war political elite and their media" for trying to derail it through "leaks, fake news stories, and statements claiming that the summit will not happen".