"There is always an empire that is trying to take away the freedom of the Hungarians, and right now it is the one in Brussels," Viktor Orban said in a speech on Saturday. View on euronews

Tens of thousands rallied in Budapest against Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Saturday, waving the national flag as the leader of the surging opposition Tisza party pledged to make Hungary part of a strong Europe and end Orban's 15-year rule.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is vowing to rid his country of foreign-funded groups, calling them a “shadow army” serving the European Union and a “liberal American empire.”

Orbán, in power since 2010, has used the March 15 celebration in recent years as a podium from which to launch increasingly hostile harangues against the EU, to which Hungary has