Hungarian voters will decide this Sunday, 12 April, which political forces will be able to form a majority in the National Parliament and, consequently, who will be the country's future Prime Minister. The rest of Europe is anxiously awaiting the outcome of this election.
Viktor Orbán, who has led the government since 2010, is seeking his fifth consecutive term. Orbán, who plays on three boards simultaneously—Putin's Russia, Trump's America, and Brussels' Europe—has systematically exploited each of them to maximise his chances of re-election. He represents a contemporary form of political authoritarianism exercised within a formally democratic institutional framework. According to several analysts, this is one of the clearest examples of politics centred on the almost absolute power of the leader—an ancient phenomenon that is being reborn in the European space, in parallel with what is happening in other parts of the globe.
The ruses he has employed are varied. Electoral districts were redrawn to maximise the relative weight of rural votes, where his party, Fidesz, controls the electorate more easily. Conversely, the weight of urban votes, which traditionally favour the opposition, has been diluted. He abolished campaign spending limits, which disproportionately benefits the current governing party, Fidesz; according to the conclusions of various analysts, the party uses state resources as if they were its own money. This is, moreover, a recurring pattern of deliberate confusion between public resources and partisan or private interests. Various reports and analyses have noted that public funds, besides enriching those in power, are used as "ready cash" to muster support in rural areas.
Furthermore, the current government has made it easier for Hungarians living abroad—who traditionally support Orbán—to register to vote. He controls, directly or indirectly, about 90% of the media and manipulates social networks, all with the aim of spreading the message that the main opposition candidate, Péter Magyar, would be a puppet of Ursula von der Leyen and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Trump administration openly supports Viktor Orbán. Vice President JD Vance, a strangely ideological and profoundly retrograde politician, was in Hungary just a few days ago. He shamelessly interfered in the electoral process of an EU country. We must have the courage to say that interference of this kind is an unacceptable act.
Vance came to support a European leader who has very special ties with Vladimir Putin. The Russian president has the destruction of the EU and NATO at the top of his political agenda. He is a politician who asserts himself as our enemy and who seriously threatens our democratic space.
Orbán is a "Trojan Horse" for Putin, as recently suggested by The Washington Post. According to this prestigious American daily, there are credible reports—endorsed by multiple European sources—that the Hungarian government keeps the Kremlin informed, in real-time, of what is discussed in high-level meetings in Brussels. For example, there are credible allegations, published by major media outlets and cited by political intelligence sources, that Hungarian officials take advantage of breaks in European Council sessions to call Sergey Lavrov to obtain direct instructions from Moscow. On the other hand, it is suspected that NATO has stopped sharing certain strategic military plans with Hungary. There are fears that Orbán's government could compromise Alliance secrets regarding the defence of Ukraine.
Donald Tusk, the Polish Prime Minister, considers Orbán and his clique a direct threat to the security of the EU and its member states. The opinion of Tusk, who served as President of the European Council and leads a country well-acquainted with the Kremlin's clandestine practices, cannot be ignored or swept under the carpet, as some politicians are wont to do.
One of the most characteristic events of Orbán and Putin's cunning way of operating involved an attempt, attributed by many to Russian secret services, to orchestrate a fake attack against a pipeline or against Orbán himself on the eve of the elections. The intention would be clear: to blame these "staged crimes" on the opposition, allegedly in the pay of Zelenskyy and foreign interests, thereby emotionally boosting the chances of victory for Orbán, the "true" defender of the fatherland.
The European parties allied with Fidesz form one of the most reactionary families in the European Parliament: the Patriots for Europe. In truth, they possess neither patriotic sentiment nor any desire to defend European values. Democracy with ethics in public life is not their concern. They do not believe in the vital importance of cohesion within the European Union and do everything to undermine it. This political family includes Marine Le Pen's Rassemblement National (France), VOX (Spain), Lega (Italy), and ultra-nationalist and xenophobic parties from Czechia, Austria, the Netherlands, and Slovakia, and even Chega from Portugal, to name but a few of the most radical. The greatest danger comes from France: if the RN were to win the 2027 presidential elections, the Patriots for Europe would be in a better position to help achieve what both the Kremlin and Donald Trump's MAGA movement so desire—to implode the European Union.
It is fundamental that the Hungarian opposition obtains a majority on Sunday. More than just an anomaly, the Orbán case exposes a persistent European fragility: the difficulty of defending democracy when its hollowed-out from within its own institutions or member states.
