could be revived and even expanded into a looser V4+ constellation<\/a>, extending beyond its traditional members to include countries such as Austria, Croatia or Slovenia.<\/p>\n\u201cStrengthening Central European regional cooperation plays a key role in the strategic thinking of the incoming administration,\u201d Hegedus comments.<\/p>\n
Yet even if the political will exists, alignment between Magyar and Tusk is still far from guaranteed, with Ukraine likely to be the first real point of friction.<\/p>\n
Budapest under Magyar will likely side with the Czech Republic and Slovakia in declining to support the EU\u2019s \u20ac90 billion loan plan for Ukraine. The three also differ in their positions on Kyiv\u2019s path toward EU membership.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine has clearly benefited from Orban no longer being in power \u2013 but that doesn\u2019t mean it has gained a real ally,\u201d Mazzini says. \u201cWhat it has lost is a major antagonist.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same ambiguity applies to the broader relationship with the EU. Magyar has signalled a willingness to re-engage, but how far that shift will go remains unclear \u2013 and may depend to a large part as much on domestic constraints as on external expectations.<\/p>\n
\u201cMagyar\u2019s politics \u2013 especially on foreign policy \u2013 are far from liberal,\u201d Mazzini says. \u201cNor is he clearly pro-EU, at least in any straightforward sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
In some respects, he adds, Magyar may have more in common with Italy\u2019s Giorgia Meloni than with Tusk.<\/p>\n
Since 2022 and Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Poland\u2019s regional focus has shifted decisively northward\u2014toward the Baltic states and especially in the realm of security cooperation\u2014at the expense of Central Europe, Hegedus argues. While Budapest\u2019s overtures might \u201ccontribute to a more nuanced and balanced geopolitical approach in Warsaw,\u201d he suggests they are unlikely to alter that trajectory in any meaningful way. In his view, Hungary \u201csimply lacks sufficient strategic weight,\u201d particularly in the areas that matter most to Polish strategic and security thinking.<\/p>\n
For now, the emerging Magyar-Tusk alignment remains more promise than policy. \u201cThe real test,\u201d Munk believes, \u201cwill be whether this partnership can sustain momentum beyond the initial transition period and deliver tangible institutional and diplomatic results.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here, she points out, coordination on the rule of law, EU cooperation and security, particularly in relation to Russia and Ukraine, will be key.<\/p>\n
Mazzini, too, remains cautious. \u201cWhat Magyar ultimately does with his views remains an open question,\u201d he says. \u201cOne can just as easily imagine a scenario in which the Polish and Hungarian prime ministers don\u2019t fully align, and Magyar positions himself as a more pragmatic actor.\u201d<\/p>\n
In practice, that would mean still being critical of some EU policies, but less openly confrontational and more compromise-seeking in serving Hungary\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n
The Budapest\u2013Warsaw rapprochement may be gathering pace. But it is only when interests begin to pull in different directions that its durability will be tested.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alignment \u2013 with limits If the bilateral reset with Warsaw offers Magyar a pragmatic entry point, his ambitions…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3210,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[2620,64,354,366,9,2621],"class_list":["post-3209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-donald-tusk","tag-bilateral-relatios","tag-donald-tusk","tag-hungary","tag-peter-magyar","tag-poland","tag-v4"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/poland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}