Rallies in Budapest Use National Day to Stake Political Ground BUDAPEST - The government and the opposition held rival mass rallies in central Budapest on Thursday, marking the anniversary of the 1848 uprising against Hapsburg rule and using the occasion to stake out their positions in and about the divided Hungary of today. The official government commemoration and a rally organized by Milla, a civil organization for press freedom, both attracted tens of thousands of people on a sunny national holiday, and marked the first time that the two camps - broadly, for and against conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orban - measured their relative strengths. Mr. Orban, a usually stirring orator, first came to national prominence in the late 1980s, when March 15 commemorations of the 1848 uprising became a rallying point against Soviet control and one-party Communist rule. On Thursday, Mr. Orban gave a defiant speech to an estimated 100,000 supporters who chanted "Viktor, Viktor," outside the ornate Parliament building, a landmark on the Danube that cleaves Buda from Pest, the two halves of the capital. Without alluding directly to the European Union's move this week to freeze about €500 million in development aid to Hungary, Mr. Orban appealed to the strong strain of patriotism that runs through the Hungarian national consciousness. "We demand equality for Hungarians," Mr. Orban told the crowd. We won't be second-class citizens in Europe. The E.U. funds may not be frozen if Hungary acts to substantially reduce its deficit by June. Budapest also has to respond to concerns raised by Brussels on laws that the European Commission said threatened the independence of the judiciary, the central bank and the government's data protection authority, or face legal action. In a defiant speech, filled with references to the history of "a thousand-year-old European nation," Mr. Orban proclaimed: "By the God of Hungarians we vow, that we will be slaves no longer," taking a quote from the poem by the celebrated author Sandor Petofi that symbolizes the 1848 uprising. The crowd - made up of all ages - roared. Ildiko Erdelyi, a retiree from Budapest, was among them. "We trust him absolutely," he said of Mr. Orban. Referring to the European freeze of funds, she added: "It was a political decision. I don't understand why Greece and Spain were not sanctioned in the same way. Julia Lakatos of the Center for Fair Political Analysis, a nongovernmental group, noted that politicians like to enlist March 15 in their causes. "This entire revolutionary thematic is very easy to pull over current political issues," she said. "There is a sense of frustration among supporters of the government, who feel misunderstood," Ms. Lakatos said. They feel like the government is trying to do good, but Brussels acts as an oppressor and applies double standards. Supporters of the civic opposition movement Milla turned out by the tens of thousands on the sunlit Free Press Street, facing a bridge on the Danube. Like the 1848 revolutionaries had done, organizers read out 12 points, demanding civil liberties, free justice, transparency and standing by fundamental E.U. values. Critics say that after almost two years in power, Mr. Orban's government has tightened its grip on media, the central bank and the judiciary, raising concerns about a commitment to democratic principles. "We are small and we have to play by the rules," said Andras Szabados, 37, holding a banner that read "Hey Europe, sorry about my Prime Minister." He carried the same banner at a rally in January. "Democracy as an ideal doesn't count" for Mr. Orban, Mr. Szabados said. While the protests were largely peaceful, the news agency MTI reported that the riot police removed several people from a group of around 500 who tried to disturb the event organized by Milla. Government and opposition parties held smaller rallies in other parts of Budapest and elsewhere in the Hungary. Attila Juhasz, an analyst at Political Capital Institute, a research organization in Budapest, said the holiday was an opportunity for both sides to "compare forces and show which one of them can get the bigger crowd to the streets." He warned against fast conclusions following the rallies, noting that opinion polls suggest about half of potential voters seem to have no political preference. "The opposition is fragmented, with parties that were unable to dissolve the aversion there is against politics in the society," Mr. Juhasz said. The strength of Fidesz, the conservative party led by Mr. Orban, "has no equal in any other party or civil movement," Mr. Juhasz said.