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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n speaks during an assembly of European far-right parties with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Patriots for Europe group, in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, March 23, 2026.<\/p>\n
Denes Erdos\/AP<\/p>\n
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, left, watches from outside the main table as Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to EU leaders via video link during a round table meeting at the EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Geert Vanden Wijngaert\/AP<\/p>\n
Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, left, speaks with Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban prior to a group photo of leaders at the EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Omar Havana\/AP<\/p>\n
From left, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Portugal’s Prime Minister Luis Montenegro, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Austria’s Chancellor Christian Stocker walk together prior to a group photo at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, March 19, 2026.<\/p>\n
Geert Vanden Wijngaert\/AP<\/p>\n
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 Hungary ‘s elections on April 12 will have profound aftershocks as many in the European Union hope for the defeat of nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n, who is widely seen as endangering the future of the 27-nation bloc.<\/p>\n
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Orb\u00e1n, the EU’s longest-serving leader, has trailed in the polls. His 16-year grip on power has tested the EU system of governance meant to ensure peace through economic and political integration after the ravages of the world wars. His rival P\u00e9ter Magyar told the Associated Press he would repair Hungary’s relationship with the EU if elected.<\/p>\n
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The EU is grappling with enormous threats: the rise of right-wing populism, conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, Russian sabotage efforts, Chinese economic expansion and a White House that is upending decades of transatlantic cooperation.<\/p>\n
But Orb\u00e1n’s vetoes have limited EU responses. Lawmakers and analysts say he has used his right of veto and a deep understanding of how the bloc disperses funding to members to entrench his power and gain outsize influence by blocking decision-making to extract concessions.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe entered a club, read the rules, figured out how he can rig the rules, and then started to be a free rider and blackmail all of the other club members,\u201d said D\u00e1niel Heged\u0171s, deputy director with the Berlin-based Institute for European Politics. \u201cThe question is, how long will the club members tolerate it?\u201d<\/p>\n
Optimism for Hungary turned into frustration<\/p>\n
It didn’t start that way. After the Cold War, Hungary joined the EU along with nine other countries in 2004 in the bloc’s largest expansion ever. There was widespread optimism for Hungary, said Jim Townsend, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security.<\/p>\n
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But after economic crises, Orb\u00e1n came to power by promising prosperity to the rich and poor alike, said G\u00e1bor Scheiring, a former Hungarian lawmaker now teaching at Georgetown University in Qatar. He also built bonds with conservative politicians across the bloc.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n began vilifying the EU, often comparing Brussels to the Soviet Union, even while receiving massive amounts of EU money, and resisting pressure to reverse democratic backsliding.<\/p>\n
From 2014 until 2022, “Hungary was one of the biggest beneficiaries of EU funds,\u201d Scheiring said. \u201cOrb\u00e1n could navigate the EU system really well: get all the money and get away with his political shenanigans.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The EU grew frustrated with Orb\u00e1n’s failures to ensure judicial independence and media freedom and to rein in corruption. It began freezing billions in funding to Budapest in 2022 over breaches of rule-of-law standards.<\/p>\n
After Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Orb\u00e1n frequently used his veto power to stymie efforts to support Kyiv and sanction Moscow. His closeness with Russian President Vladimir Putin was noted.<\/p>\n
Last month, when Orb\u00e1n reneged on a deal struck in December to provide Ukraine with a 90-billion euro ($104-billion) loan, the famously amiable European Council President Antonio Costa was visibly irked: \u201cNobody can blackmail the European Union institutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n exposes EU \u2018design flaw\u2019<\/p>\n
As many see it, a thorn in the EU’s side is that major decisions require unanimity among its members. Critics say it has kept the bloc from taking stronger actions on other critical issues like the war in Gaza.<\/p>\n
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An internal European Parliament report shows that Orb\u00e1n has vetoed far more than any other leader in the EU’s history, said Daniel Freund, a German lawmaker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s staggering. No one else even comes close,\u201d Freund said. \u201cThis is the biggest design flaw in the EU that he has exposed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n’s vetoes have led to calls to reform the bloc’s foundational treaties to buttress against future authoritarians \u2014 or Orb\u00e1n himself, if he wins the election.<\/p>\n
There are ways to do that, but each has limitations.<\/p>\n
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The EU could reduce the number of issues that require a unanimous vote. That would allow measures to pass with a simple majority of the 27 national leaders representing roughly two-thirds of the bloc’s population.<\/p>\n
Heged\u0171s said the European Commission \u201ccould play even more hardball\u201d by crafting sanctions to address specific breaches of EU rules.<\/p>\n
Some politicians have even proposed invoking Article 7 of the Treaty of the EU, a legal measure that could revoke Hungary’s voting rights in the bloc.<\/p>\n
That would require the agreement of all the EU’s other leaders, however, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said he would veto such a measure.<\/p>\n
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The EU could pressure Hungary in defense funding<\/p>\n
There are other tools the EU could use.<\/p>\n
The European Commission has not approved Hungary\u2019s bid to draw some 16 billion euros ($18.4 billion) as part of an EU program to boost members’ defense capabilities. The 18 other countries that submitted plans to use the funds have been approved.<\/p>\n
If Orb\u00e1n is reelected, the EU could use that funding as a bargaining chip to extract concessions such as lifting his veto of the 90 billion euros to Ukraine, Heged\u0171s said. But there\u2019s no guarantee he won\u2019t find other policies to veto once Hungary gets the money.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat will the EU offer in two to three or four months when the next strategic decision will come and Orb\u00e1n will block again?\u201d Heged\u0171s said.<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n inspires a look at how the EU accepts members<\/p>\n
Orb\u00e1n’s conduct has prompted a reexamination of how the EU accepts new members and monitors current ones.<\/p>\n
The ongoing negotiations with Moldova, Montenegro and Ukraine to join the EU are increasingly shaped by the tumultuous experience with Hungary.<\/p>\n
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In February, European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos said the 12 countries including Hungary that joined the EU from 2004-2007 \u201cled to a new era of stability for our continent and an impressive level of economic convergence.”<\/p>\n
But without naming Hungary or any other nation, Kos said a lesson learned from 2004 is that \u201cwe need to have safeguards that ensure new members stick to the rules.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf countries go backwards on our fundamentals, such as democracy and rule of law, the safeguards must bite,” the commissioner said, adding: \u201cNo Trojan horses.”<\/p>\n
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McNeil reported from Brussels.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n speaks during an assembly of European far-right parties with Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Patriots for Europe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":875183,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5174],"tags":[11783,45787,2000,299,5187,1699,2190,248157,248158,60437,244110,244111,244106,247337,6566,1781,333],"class_list":["post-875182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-eu","tag-antonio-costa","tag-daniel-freund","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-hungary","tag-hungary-orban-eu-elections-reforms-brussels-budapest","tag-jim-townsend","tag-marta-kos","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-32502-ap-online-europe-news","tag-robert-fico","tag-viktor-orban","tag-vladimir-putin"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=875182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/875182\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/875183"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=875182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=875182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=875182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}