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PATRIK STOLLARZ\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Viktor Orb\u00e1n, Hungary\u2019s prime minister since 2010, faces an election dogfight. Behind in the polls, he has been effectively endorsed by both the Kremlin and the White House, and a host of conservative world leaders. As wars in Iran and Ukraine exacerbate the fissures that have weakened NATO, as well as the U.S.\u2019s relationship with the European Union, this is an election that is being followed with bated breath in Washington, Moscow, Kyiv and Brussels.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Before the elections on April 12, a scandal engulfed the Hungarian government. On leaked<\/a> recordings, foreign minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 can be heard deferentially acquiescing to his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov and passing on information from EU meetings. Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 appeared willing to help the Kremlin\u2019s cause in Brussels, to remove oligarchs and their relatives from the EU blacklist, and to block efforts to aid Ukraine. Hungary\u2019s advocacy for the Kremlin\u2019s agenda culminated in its recent veto<\/a> of fresh sanctions on Russia and over $100 billion in loans to Ukraine. On X, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk wrote<\/a> that while \u201cHungary is and will be in the European Union, Victor Orb\u00e1n and his foreign minister left Europe long ago.\u201d And the Irish taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin described Szijj\u00e1rto\u2019s calls with Lavrov as both \u201csinister\u201d and \u201calarming.\u201d<\/p>\n Subscribe to our coda currents newsletter<\/p>\n Insights from the Coda newsroom on the global forces that shape local crises.<\/p>\n Szijj\u00e1rto alleged<\/a> that \u201cforeign intelligence services, with the active involvement of Hungarian journalists, have been intercepting my phone calls.\u201d It is a plot, the Hungarian government claims, to influence the upcoming polls. Orb\u00e1n directly blames Ukraine for seeking to unseat his government. The opposition, led by Peter Magyar, has a healthy lead in the polls and describes the Hungarian government\u2019s closeness to the Kremlin as \u201ctreason.\u201d According to European intelligence reports, Moscow sent<\/a> a three-person team to Hungary, overseen by Putin confidant Sergei Kiriyenko who ran an operation to interfere in the Moldovan election back in September. His tactics encompassed \u201cvote-buying networks, troll farms, and on-the-ground influence campaigns.\u201d A Kremlin-linked media consultancy, facing EU sanctions, was hired<\/a> to dismiss Magyar as a Brussels stooge and portray Orb\u00e1n as the only candidate strong enough to to be treated as an equal by world leaders, as evidenced by the strength of his relationship with Trump.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite a war with Iran that doesn\u2019t appear to be going entirely to plan, the U.S. president took time out to back<\/a> Orb\u00e1n with enthusiasm and at considerable length on Truth Social. Trump said Orb\u00e1n was \u201ca true friend, fighter, and WINNER.\u201d JD Vance, the vice president, is scheduled to visit Hungary on April 7, just five days before the election. And secretary of state Marco Rubio went<\/a> to Hungary in February. It is now part of the U.S. National Security Strategy to work<\/a> towards \u201ccultivating resistance to Europe\u2019s current trajectory within European nations.\u201d To that end, notes the U.S. government, \u201cthe growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.\u201d Orb\u00e1n speaks MAGA\u2019s language on immigration, traditional values and the Christian essence of Western societies. He is, like Putin and Trump, in MAGA\u2019s view, an implacable opponent of secular, progressive, globalist politics as symbolised by Brussels.<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n, the longest serving current head of government in the EU, has become a figurehead for populist, nationalist movements across the world. The recent CPAC Hungary<\/a> summit was attended by several of these leaders including France\u2019s Marine Le Pen, Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, and the Netherlands\u2019 Geert Wilders,who called<\/a> Orb\u00e1n \u201ca lion on a continent led by sheep.\u201d Latin American leaders close to Trump , including Javier Milei of Argentina and Jose Antonio Kast of Chile, also attended. Milei, who gave the longest speech at the summit, said<\/a> Orb\u00e1n was \u201ca beacon for all\u2026 who refuse to accept that the West\u2019s destiny is one of managed decline.\u201d This international network, with the United States and Russia included, has a vested ideological interest in seeing Orban continue to remain a thorn in the EU\u2019s side.\u00a0<\/p>\n But what can Brussels do? The answer, it appears, is not much. The EU is consensus driven; it needs all its parts to act in concert, giving holdouts like Orb\u00e1n considerable power to hold the whole bloc hostage. But given Orb\u00e1n\u2019s prominence as an ideologue, when Hungary blocks<\/a> sanctions or delays support for Ukraine, it is more than a single nation going rogue. Alice Weidler, co-chair of the far-right AfD, the largest opposition party in the German Bundestag, was among those who spoke at the CPAC Hungary conference last month. Robert Fico, prime minister of Slovakia, is an Orb\u00e1n ally. On April 19, Bulgaria will have its eighth general election in just five years. Former president Rumen Radev\u2019s new Progressive Party leads<\/a> the polls and shares Orb\u00e1n\u2019s pro-Kremlin, anti-EU inclinations.<\/p>\n So polarized is the Hungarian election, that right wing groups are deploying<\/a> their own observers from Argentina, Austria, the Czech Republic, Kenya, Poland, Germany, Italy, Spain, Serbia, Tanzania and the United States to monitor proceedings. EU observers have said the Hungarian government controls the national media and a recent documentary alleges that a desperate government is resorting<\/a> to vote-buying, gerrymandering and intimidation tactics. It\u2019s hard to see how either Orb\u00e1n or Magyar will accept the election result without protest, unless the margin is crushing. But, given Trump\u2019s disdain for NATO allies and the EU, an Orb\u00e1n election defeat would be a much-needed victory for European unity.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"currents\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/CODA-CURRENTS-250x250.jpg\")
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