{"id":449469,"date":"2026-04-02T18:30:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/02\/tusk-contro-orban-sugli-aiuti-a-kiev-il-piano-ideale-per-putin\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T18:53:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:53:24","slug":"tusk-clashes-with-orban-over-aid-to-kyiv-the-ideal-plan-for-putin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/02\/tusk-clashes-with-orban-over-aid-to-kyiv-the-ideal-plan-for-putin\/","title":{"rendered":"Tusk clashes with Orb\u00e1n over aid to Kyiv: “The ideal plan for Putin”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 Just over a week before the general election in Hungary, the clash between the Polish Prime Minister, Donald Tusk<\/strong>, and the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>, is intensifying. The casus belli is not just the energy issue, with prices and supplies being put at risk<\/b><\/a> by the crisis triggered by the Israeli-US attack on Iran, but, more broadly, Budapest\u2019s veto on EU aid to Kyiv, its whispers of European information<\/a> towards Moscow, its stance on Russia\u2019s war of aggression against Ukraine and its lack of loyal cooperation with members of the European family. In short, all the dots seem to be connecting, from Ukraine to the Middle East. In a post<\/a> published this morning (2 April), the Polish leader launched a not-too-veiled criticism of his Hungarian counterpart: \u201cThe threat of NATO\u2019s disintegration, the easing of sanctions against Russia, a serious energy crisis in Europe, the suspension of aid to Ukraine and Orb\u00e1n\u2019s blocking of the loan to Kyiv<\/strong>: it really does seem like Putin\u2019s ideal plan<\/strong>,\u201d wrote Tusk, with a clear reference to the veto<\/a> that Orb\u00e1n has been maintaining for several weeks on the new \u20ac90 billion package<\/b><\/a> of European aid to Kyiv. <\/p>\n

Warsaw\u2019s jab was followed, within a matter of hours, by a response from Budapest. \u201cEurope is facing one of the worst economic crises in its history, and the whole world is grappling with a serious energy crisis,\u201d the Hungarian Prime Minister outlined on X<\/a>. For this reason, \u201cthe only way out is to lift the sanctions imposed on Russian energy sources<\/strong>: we must not think of Putin, but of our country and our people,\u201d he added, before concluding with a provocation directed straight at the Polish leader: \u201cDonald, instead of acting like a warmonger, think about loving and saving your country!\u201d <\/p>\n

Today\u2019s post confirms what had already emerged on several occasions in recent weeks, namely that the Hungarian leader\u2019s strategy regarding aid to Kyiv is based on a sort of “quid pro quo<\/strong>“: the green light for the EU loan to Ukraine will only come when Russian oil starts flowing again to Budapest via the Druzhba pipeline<\/strong>, which passes through Ukraine and was damaged<\/a> by a Moscow drone last January. <\/p>\n

In another post<\/a> on X this morning, the Hungarian Prime Minister reiterated the point. This time, the “scapegoat” was a letter from the European Commission<\/strong> asking Budapest to stop the scheme<\/b><\/a> that ensures Hungarian citizens pay lower fuel prices than those charged to foreigners. After describing the letter from the Berlaymont as “a threatening letter<\/strong>“, Orb\u00e1n added that “Brussels must understand that Hungary is suffering, both from Ukraine\u2019s blockade of Druzhba and from the global energy crisis knocking at our door.” \u201cWe will not allow our families to suffer because of Ukrainian blackmail<\/strong>,\u201d he continued, \u201cand for this reason, Hungary will maintain its fuel price protection scheme: Europe is not an empire ruled by Brussels, and for us, Hungary comes first.\u201d <\/p>\n

The incumbent prime minister\u2019s increasingly strident rhetoric coincides with the approach of the parliamentary elections on 12 April<\/b>, an event at which Orb\u00e1n will, for the first time, be the underdog<\/b><\/a> after 16 years of unchallenged political dominance. According to a poll published today by the Publicus Institute<\/strong>, Fidesz<\/strong>\u2014Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party\u2014would secure only 35 per cent<\/strong> of the vote, trailing behind Tisza<\/strong>, the political creation of Peter Magyar<\/strong>, the prime minister\u2019s former ally and now main rival<\/strong>, which is polling at 41 per cent<\/strong>. Despite these figures\u2014confirmed by most polls in recent weeks\u2014the race remains wide open, particularly due to the relatively high proportion of undecided voters<\/strong> (around 24 per cent<\/strong>). <\/p>\n

In light of this, it is hardly surprising that the Hungarian election campaign is reverberating far beyond the country\u2019s borders, drawing in political figures and parties at the European level. Today, an event organised by the European Democratic Party<\/strong> (EDP), a transnational, liberal and pro-European group, will be held in Budapest to send a message in defence of Europe against Moscow\u2019s interference in the vote, corruption, and the erosion of democracy. According to the organisers, including the Italian-French MEP Sandro Gozi<\/strong> (Renew Europe), mobilisation is necessary because \u201cnon-negotiable values that must be defended\u201d are at stake in this election: sovereignty, security, and the rule of law.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As the parliamentary elections on 12 April draw nearer, the Hungarian Prime Minister is insisting once again that sanctions on Russian energy sources be lifted: “The only way out” of the crisis<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":449449,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25833,33644,25948,33657,27782,25952,30781,30669],"class_list":["post-449469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-aiuti-allucraina","tag-donald-tusk-one-two","tag-elezioni-in-ungheria","tag-peter-hungarian","tag-poland-and","tag-ukraine-in-2","tag-viktor-orban-en-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7899"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449469"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449469\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449470,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449469\/revisions\/449470"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}