On Sunday, Hungary’s Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, cruised to re-election for the fourth time. In his post-election speech, Orbán declared victory over a coalition of left-wing, far-left and even far-right political groups that had united in an attempt to oust him.
In a victory speech to supporters of his Fidesz-KDNP party on Sunday, Prime Minister Orbán declared victory over the “overwhelming force” of “the left at home, the international left all around, the Brussels bureaucrats, the Soros empire with all its money, the international mainstream media, and in the end, even the Ukrainian president.”
“We have won a great victory – a victory so great that you can see it from the moon, certainly from Brussels,” Orbán said in reference to the hostility his government has received from the European Union. EU leaders have taken issue with the Hungarian leader’s opposition to mass migration, as well as his government’s promotion of socially conservative, Christian values.
Prime Minister Orbán pointed to his victory as proof that “Christian democratic politics, conservative civic politics, and patriotic politics [are] not the past, [but] the future.”
Numerous mainstream media outlets, including generally neutral outfits such as the Associated Press and Reuters, repeatedly accused Orbán of having longstanding and close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin throughout the election cycle. The Hungarian leader, however, has always insisted that his dealings with the Kremlin have strictly practical bases, such as keeping gas prices down and the maintenance and expansion of nuclear energy production.
Orbán’s reference to “the Ukrainian president” was the result of Zelensky effectively weighing in on the election to accuse the prime minister of advancing Russia’s interests. Orbán has refused to allow NATO-supplied weapons for the Ukrainian war effort to pass through Hungarian territory, though humanitarian aid is allowed to proceed. The opposition was in favor of arming Ukraine, but Orbán’s government feared that such a move could lead to a conflict with Russia.
A region of western Ukraine that is home to a large Hungarian minority was central to the country’s debate over Ukrainian policy. Prior to the expansion of the war, Ukraine’s treatment of its Hungarian minority had long been a point of contention between the two countries. Most recently, the Ukrainian government appeared to insinuate that the Hungarian government was siding with Russia in hopes that a victorious Kremlin would transfer the border region, known as Transcarpathia, to Hungary. Orbán’s government has strongly denied the allegation, Breitbart reported.
