Proximity to Moscow: Vladimir Putin (right), President of Russia, and Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary, during a joint press conference after meeting at the Kremlin in September 2018 Photo: dpa
Viktor Orbán has maintained a close relationship with Russian President Putin for years – and has also benefited from it internally. Could it now cost you the election in Hungary?
Will the Ukraine issue affect the April 3 elections in Hungary? That’s what we asked Peter Marki-Zay, the main Hungarian opposition candidate, when he visited Berlin in February to present his ideas to a German audience. His response was: “Not much, I think. Hungarians are not very interested in foreign policy.” Perhaps, he joked, thanks to Orbán’s good behavior, Putin won’t conquer Hungary after all. “But seriously: I don’t think it will have a big impact.” This was the day before the “tipping point”: the following night, the attack on Ukraine ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin began.
Six weeks later, the war is the central issue of the election campaign in Hungary, and the only question left is whether the majority of voters will follow the slogans of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or those of the opposition. Orbán says: war or peace. Marki-Zay says: East or West. One slogan implies that the opposition will draw Hungary into the war in Ukraine, the other that Orbán wants to make Hungary a vassal of Russia.