While Trump bombs Iran’s nuclear facilities and Putin dreams of the feet of a Russian soldier, it’s a good time to remind ourselves what will be important for survival amid this chaos.
One priority is predictable and at least stable relations with neighbors. This requires many nuances and painstaking work. A current example comes from Hungary.
In Hungary, a two-month anti-Ukrainian performance organized by Orbán to mobilize supporters and maintain power is coming to an end. Difficulties in the country are growing, government support is falling, and Orbán tried to distract people with a poll about Ukraine’s EU accession—with a stance of “categorically against.”
A month ago, the Budapest leader claimed that about 1 million Hungarian citizens participated in the “referendum” that started in mid-April. Yesterday and today, Russian channels have been actively spreading that the total number of participants exceeded 2 million (with a population under 10 million). Orbán presents the story so that, based on the results of this poll, he will take a position at the EU summit on June 26–27, where various issues of relations with Ukraine will be discussed.
At the same time, Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar stated that the real number of poll participants was about 600,000. In fact, Orbán’s venture has failed. Money was spent on advertising (including highly provocative ads), but it was impossible to drag people into the scheme. Any references by Orbán to so-called “results” will be a direct deception of EU leaders.
This once again shows: Hungary and Hungarians are one thing, and the temporary political regime is another. It becomes clearer by the day that the interests and actions of Orbán’s political regime increasingly contradict the interests of Hungary. Attempts to blame Ukraine for own mistakes and deteriorating relations with the EU no longer work.
In this context, calm, pragmatic steps are needed to strengthen bilateral ties at all levels. Ukraine has many friends in Hungary.
