The last speech of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the “peace march” held on June 1, 2024, in the Hungarian capital made the entire European continent tremble. The Trojan horse inside the European Union and NATO is no longer a latent threat. The head of the Hungarian government openly testified that he is a long-time Kremlin agent. The only hope is that the Hungarian people can halt the country’s slide into a dictatorship like Belarus or Russia.
After Russia had launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Viktor Orbán had to adjust his behaviour regarding Russia and Putin. On the one hand, Hungary, disagreeing at first, yet in the end supported all European sanctions against Russia. On the other hand, Orbán is doing everything to hold on to energy supplies from Russia and partnership with Rosatom. Furthermore, Hungary’s state-owned media are turning into RT and Sputnik’s major ‘allies’ in Europe, blaming Ukraine and other Western nations for fuelling the war.
Nearly 41% of EU resolutions on Ukraine are blocked by Hungary. The European Peace Facility is put on hold. Accession negotiations with Ukraine are being held hostage by Hungary.
For a decade or more, many social, political, academic and media experts from different countries have been sounding the alarm about rapid decline of democracy in Hungary.
“Orbán’s regime is strategically built on corruption and misuse of EU funds,” commented Euronews Daniel Hegedus, a member of the German Marshall Fund. “This kind of political system does not work outside the EU.”
Zsolt Enyedi, a professor at the Institute for Democracy at Central European University, agrees: “I don’t think Orbán will ever voluntarily leave the EU. Mainly for financial reasons. But I think he could lead to a situation when the EU will have no other choice but to exclude Hungary”.
“If Orbán continues to follow this path, it will become unbearably obvious that within the European Union we have a Putin-type regime: ideologically and mentally, although not a violent one. The EU will have to say no to such a regime.” However, there is no provision in the treaties regarding exclusion from the EU, “as the union is founded on the principle of law and the assumption that all member states adhere to its fundamental principles,” commented law professor Lazovsky. “It was very naive to believe that after accession to the EU, the authorities will strictly implement the promised policy and carry out reforms. As seen in Hungary… things can go down quickly,” he added.
But neither NATO nor the EU has a mechanism for revoking membership, that gives Viktor Orbán’s government a free hand to political manoeuvres, allowing it to use democratic mechanisms to promote a policy of manipulating public opinion and to establish an authoritarian regime in Hungary.
How can the EU penalise Hungary for its slide away from democracy?
Firstly, there is the possibility to suspend Orbán’s government voting rights in the EU.
Secondly, the EU can punish Hungary financially. The European Commission has already launched this process.
And there is a third way – the EU leaves the possibility for Orbán to resume democracy. If only for the sake of securing the funds that he would otherwise lose.
Meanwhile, let’s jump back to Saturday’s “peace march” a week before the European elections. Orbán denounced the EU’s support for Ukraine, portraying his domestic and international opponents as “warmongers” who allegedly seek to draw Hungary directly into the conflict, called for his Fidesz party to “occupy Brussels” and thus alter Europe’s approach to supporting Ukraine. Orbán condemned his partners from the EU and NATO, who help Ukraine, labelled them “pro-military” and advocated the victory of Donald Trump in the US President elections 2024.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also declared an intention to create a so-called “peace coalition” in the newly elected European Parliament. Which would focus on compelling Ukraine to negotiate with Russia and not helping it confront the aggressor. He also assured the audience that Hungary is working to “redefine” its NATO membership. “Our lawyers and officers are hard at work to see how Hungary can maintain its NATO membership in a way that it wouldn’t have to take part in NATO actions outside of NATO territory.”
Then, no longer embarrassed, he began to follow the Kremlin guidelines, as he had done so many times before. “Ukraine’s desire to continue armed struggle will lead to its defeat, so Kyiv, like all involved parties, needs peace negotiations.” The war for Orbán is a “military operation”, “a conflict in Ukraine,” that “should be considered as a conflict between “two Slavic countries”.” However, echoing Moscow propaganda, later added: “Western countries on Ukrainian territory are waging war against Russia.”
According to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, only two political camps will run for the European Parliament this year – those who oppose Russia’s aggression and those who prefer to be friends with the Kremlin. Orbán will join the pro-Kremlin side, he is even ready to lead a political force that promotes “peace with Russia”, unite sympathisers of Russia in the European Parliament and “forge” out of them a pro-Russian “peace coalition”.
If Donald Trump wins the US presidential election, he will support his pro-Russian coalition in the European Parliament, added Orbán. He would also initiate peace negotiations with Moscow, since, in his opinion, it is impossible to defeat Russia.
Sadly, Orbán and his government are leading the entire nation into the abyss of totalitarianism. Recently, after the visit of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, Hungary ended up among “friends” of the PRC who help China stand against the power of the United States, rewarded with investments, trade ties and diplomatic support. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó called cooperation with China “a great chance and a remarkable opportunity.” He noted that Beijing has become the largest investor in Hungary: Chinese companies have invested €16 billion in its economy. How did it end up in Africa and Belarus? I hope it’s not worth reminding.
Viktor Orbán is deliberately trying to drag Hungary into a war on the side of Russia and China. Only a blind man cannot see who is behind the attack on Ukraine and Western civilisation. So far, as a Trojan horse, Orbán has been hindering negotiations, voting, and important decisions of the European Union and NATO over support to Ukraine. Now Viktor Orbán, a Russian sleeper agent, has finally revealed himself.
Viktor Orbán’s “love” for Putin is based on money and a desire to irritate European leaders. In 2012, thanks to low-cost Russian gas, Orbán had frozen utility prices, and thus won the elections.
Orbán knew that Russia was planning an attack on Ukraine. He and Putin had an ambitious plan: Russia would seize Ukraine and Hungary would occupy the Ukrainian region of Transcarpathia, where it had already issued more than 100,000 passports to Ukrainian citizens. Earlier, in February 2022, Hungary had concentrated its armed forces along the border of Ukraine, ostensibly to ensure the safety of refugees. Fortunately, the invasion of Transcarpathia was not destined to materialise thanks to the heroism of the Ukrainian armed forces and the tremendous resistance of ordinary Ukrainians against the Moscow army.
