{"id":449611,"date":"2026-04-07T12:29:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T10:29:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/04\/07\/lungheria-va-alle-urne-sotto-lo-sguardo-speranzoso-dellue\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T14:18:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T12:18:55","slug":"hungary-goes-to-the-polls-under-the-eus-watchful-eye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/04\/07\/hungary-goes-to-the-polls-under-the-eus-watchful-eye\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary goes to the polls under the EU\u2019s watchful eye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels \u2013 The Vice-President of the United States, JD Vance<\/strong>, left<\/a> this morning (7 April) for Budapest<\/strong>, where he will remain until tomorrow to offer Washington\u2019s support to the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n<\/strong>, ahead of Sunday\u2019s parliamentary elections<\/strong> (12 April). It has been since 2006 \u2013 the year of the state visit by then-President George W. Bush<\/strong> \u2013 that the Hungarian capital has hosted such a high-ranking US government representative: a fact that underscores the international significance <\/strong>the elections in Hungary have taken on in these final weeks of the campaign. <\/p>\n

The reason for this attention is simple: after sixteen years of uninterrupted political dominance<\/strong> (Orb\u00e1n has been in power since 2010), the current prime minister is standing for election for the first time as the underdog<\/strong>. This is confirmed by the latest average of leading Hungarian polls<\/a>, according to which Fidesz<\/strong> \u2013 the party founded by Orb\u00e1n himself in 1988 \u2013 is expected to garner 39 percent<\/strong> of the vote, thus trailing by a full ten percentage points TISZA<\/strong>, the center-right political creation of Orb\u00e1n\u2019s former ally and now his main domestic opponent, P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

If these predictions come true, the EU country that has most strongly opposed the line dictated by Brussels on several issues over the last ten years (from immigration to energy policy; from the Covid crisis to the war in Ukraine) and which is Vladimir Putin\u2019s closest ally in the Union, could be on the brink of a historic turning point<\/strong>, both in terms of foreign policy<\/strong> and relations with the EU, and from the perspective of domestic policy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Domestic politics: Magyar\u2019s challenge to \u2018illiberal democracy\u2019 and corruption<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\n

On the domestic front, P\u00e9ter Magyar\u2019s challenge focuses primarily on two pillars that have characterized Orb\u00e1n\u2019s long rule: the construction of what the Prime Minister himself has described as an \u201cilleberal democracy<\/a>\u201d and the systemic spread of corruption<\/strong>. In recent years, as highlighted by various international reports \u2013 including those by Freedom House<\/a> and a resolution from the European Parliament<\/a> \u2013 the government has progressively consolidated its control over the media<\/a>, the judiciary, and independent institutions<\/strong>, making genuine political alternation more difficult. It is precisely against this structure that Magyar has built his campaign, presenting himself as the man who will break with this system.<\/p>\n

 At the same time, corruption has become one of the main areas of contention. Several journalistic investigations \u2013 such as the Financial Times’<\/a> investigation into the so-called “Orb\u00e1n System”<\/strong> \u2013 have highlighted the link between political power and economic elites close to the government<\/strong>, who are accused of benefiting disproportionately from public funds and European resources. Magyar has also made this criticism a cornerstone of his message.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Foreign policy: the war in Ukraine at the heart of the election campaign<\/b><\/h4>\n

\n

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict<\/strong> has been a key issue in this election campaign. The main focus has been on the two candidates\u2019 stance towards Kyiv<\/strong>. In a constant exchange of mutual accusations, Magyar has frequently pointed to several signs of a particularly close relationship between the Hungarian government and Russian President<\/strong> Vladimir Putin. On 23 March, when the Washington Post revealed the frequent contacts<\/a> between the Hungarian and Russian foreign ministers<\/strong> on the sidelines of EU Council meetings, the young opposition candidate immediately accused Minister Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 and the entire government of \u201ctreason<\/a>\u201d. Conversely, Orb\u00e1n has always responded to Magyar\u2019s accusations in kind, claiming that \u2013 if elected \u2013 he would lead Hungary into war against Russia, forcing the country to spend vast economic resources to support the army in Kyiv.<\/p>\n

<\/span>It is precisely on the issue of military and economic support for Ukraine<\/strong> that Orb\u00e1n \u2013 determined to stake everything on the contrast between “war” and “peace” to regain ground \u2013 has played one of his key cards in this election campaign. After giving his green light to the 90 billion euro EU loan package for Kyiv<\/a> during the European Council last December, the Hungarian leader suddenly backtracked<\/strong>. In early February, ahead of the summit, he announced \u2013 alongside Robert Fico\u2019s Slovakia \u2013 his intention to block the money transfer<\/a>, setting as a necessary precondition for lifting his veto the restoration of Russian oil<\/strong> flows<\/strong> to Budapest via the Druzhba pipeline<\/strong>. The energy infrastructure was hit by a Russian drone<\/strong> in January, but according to Orb\u00e1n, repairing the damage should be the responsibility of the Ukrainian government, which is reportedly refusing to do so. <\/p>\n

The case of the “Minister whispering to the Kremlin<\/a>” and Hungary\u2019s veto on the aid package are just two of the many issues linked to the war in Ukraine that have dominated the final weeks of the election campaign (among others, the accusations of Russian espionage aganist TISZA<\/a> and seizure<\/strong> by Budapest of a the convoy transporting money and gold<\/a> from an Austrian bank to a credit institution in Kyiv) and which explain the reason for the increasingly active role that Europe and the other major powers are playing in these elections: Hungary\u2019s future international standing seems to hinge entirely on the outcome of 12 April.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Magyar unknown for the EU: between hopes and doubts<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\n

Reading the election manifesto<\/a> of TISZA, Magyar appears to be the guarantee of a return to a more pro-European Hungary<\/strong>: the party claims to \u201cchoose Europe<\/strong>\u201d and proposes to \u201crebuild the relationship of trust with the EU and NATO<\/strong> and to join the Eurozone by 2030.<\/strong>\u201d Magyar has also identified the restoration of the rule of law as the only possible way to unblock the 18 billion euros in EU funds currently frozen, precisely because of systematic violations in this area. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

At the same time, however, as the European Policy Centre (EPC)<\/a> think tank explains, there is one issue on which the EU should not assume  that it is dealing with a new prime minister who is fully cooperative and in synch with Brussels\u2019 political priorities. And that issue is none other than Ukraine. \u201cWith regard to Kyiv, TISZA\u2019s manifesto is particularly sparse\u201d,<\/strong> the EPC notes, \u201cand Magyar already on several occasions has opposed the launch of the fast-track procedure for Ukraine\u2019s accession to the EU,<\/strong>\u201d just as Orb\u00e1n has done all these years. TISZA and Fidesz also share the same position on the issue of the 90 billion earmarked for Kyiv: Magyar’s MEP voted against<\/a>, just as Orb\u00e1n’s loyalists did.<\/p>\n

In light of this, “EU leaders should not assume that a change of government would bring about a clean break from Orb\u00e1n\u2019s positions.” It is certainly possible to hope that this will be the case, but it is not certain.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After sixteen years in power, the outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orb\u00e1n, is trailing in the polls for the first time. The frontrunner is his former right-hand man, P\u00e9ter Magyar<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7899,"featured_media":449586,"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":[25681],"tags":[25833,26458,33644,33657,33685,27782,28580,25803,30781,27035,30669,29842],"class_list":["post-449611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-aiuti-allucraina","tag-elezioni-in-ungheria","tag-elezioni-ungheresi","tag-peter-hungarian","tag-peter-szijjarto-and","tag-russia-in-2","tag-ukraine-in-2","tag-unione-europea-en-2","tag-viktor-orban-en-2","tag-war-in-ucraine-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449611","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=449611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":449613,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449611\/revisions\/449613"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}