Viktor Orban – Hungary’s Pro-Putin PM Declares Victory in Hungary Election

In Sunday’s national elections, April 3, 2022, Hungary's authoritarian leader and longtime Russian ally Prime Minister Viktor Orban claimed victory, declaring a mandate for a fourth term in power.

At the election night event, Orban said, during his ten-minute speech in Budapest, that it was a “huge victory” for his right-wing party.

“We won a victory so big that you can see it from the moon, and you can certainly see it from Brussels,” Orban said.

Nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban won for the fourth consecutive term, as his supporters encouraged his ambition of a conservative, “illiberal” state, neglecting concerns over Budapest's close ties with Moscow.

 

‘A Big Victory’

Known as a strong Putin ally, nationalist Viktor Orban has declared victory in Hungary's parliamentary elections, handing a fourth consecutive term in power.

Viktor Orban has finished first to clinch a fourth successive term as Hungary’s prime minister. His campaign was dominated by his controversial stance on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine where he seemed to mock Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukraine's president, in a speech.

On Sunday evening, Hungary's national elections board said “Orban's Fidesz party had a commanding lead with 71% of the votes counted,” CNN reported.

Moscow's invasion of Ukraine has deeply dominated the election campaign, and this put Orban's strong relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin under scrutiny.

Orban described Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, in his victory speech, as an "opponent" he had to overcome.

Hungary heavily relies on Russian energy and Orban has avoided occasions to condemn Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, “complicating the EU's efforts to present a united front against him,” according to CNN.

However, despite predictions of a stronger race, the Fidesz party won comfortably across much of the country.

"We have such a victory it can be seen from the moon, but it's sure that it can be seen from Brussels," Orban said in his speech on Sunday night, highlighting Hungary's long-running tensions with EU leaders.

"We will remember this victory until the end of our lives because we had to fight against a huge amount of opponents," Orban said, citing a number of his political enemies including the Hungarian left, "bureaucrats" in Brussels, the international media, "and the Ukrainian president too—we never had so many opponents at the same time."

 

Longtime Russian Ally

Russia's invasion of Ukraine disturbed Orban's campaign in recent weeks, pushing him into awkward discussions to explain decade-old cozy business relations with President Vladimir Putin,” CNN said

He led a successful campaign to convince his party's core electorate led by Peter Marki-Zay who promised to revive ties with the European Union could lead the country into war, an accusation which the opposition denied.

“This was a huge victory,” Orban told supporters in the capital Budapest, after polls results on Sunday.

“They can see it from the Moon, but certainly from Brussels as well.”

Sharing a border with Ukraine, Hungary opened doors for more than half a million refugees so far.

The Hungarian PM’s strategy to keep his country out of war was helping the people, but refusing to provide Ukraine with weapons.

Orban has had a tense relationship with the EU, because the latter considers that Fidesz, his party, has undermined Hungary's democratic institutions.

Over his 12 years of power, Victor has rewritten the constitution, appointed his allies and changed the system of elections to his advantage.

During the campaign, the opposition's catch-phrase was “Orban or Europe.”

The opposition complained that Fidesz had isolated Hungary from the European mainstream, and from consensual democracy, fairness and decency.

CNN reported that Fidesz had detached Hungary” from the European mainstream, and from consensual democracy, fairness and decency,” and the opposition had complained of the country’s isolation.

Meeting him 12 times, Orban has a close relationship with the Russian leader, and after the outbreak of war on February 24, Hungary PM reorganized his campaign to position his party, Fidesz, as the “peace” party, promising to stay out of a conflict that had nothing to do with Hungary, as he insisted.

 

A Thorny Relationship With the EU

While in power, Victor Orban has gained close control of judiciary, media and education institutions in Hungary, and now this control is set to be extended until 2026.

The PM said he intends to build an “illiberal” state within the EU by pushing legislation targeting migrants and the LGBTQ+ community.

However, critics have long complained that Victor "has tilted the political playing field against his opponents."

Last month, Europe's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE), ordered a full-scale international monitoring operation of the recent polls, an unusual move for an EU state after claims of "a general deterioration of the conditions for democratic elections," according to CNN.

Orban said late on Sunday night: “The whole world could see this evening in Budapest that the Christian Democrat politics, the conservative politics and the nationalistic politics won.”

“Our message to Europe is that it's not the past but the future. This will be our common European future,” he added.

Since Russia's assault on Ukraine, Victor insisted to keep Hungary's troops and weapons out of the conflict.

In fact, he supported most of the EU's sanctions against Russia, but resisted to go further and presented himself as a peacemaker to voters.

On Wednesday, March 30, 2022, his foreign minister accused Ukraine's government of dealing with Hungary's opposition parties, but without giving any evidence.

Criticizing this stance, opposition leader Marki-Zay said at a rally in March: “Putin is rebuilding the Soviet empire and Orban is just watching it with strategic calm,” Reuters quoted.

Even before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Orban had a thorny relationship with the EU. Senior figures fiercely criticized his government overrule of law issues; Early in 2022, "Europe's top court allowed the EU to block funding to Hungary and Poland for violating democratic rights," CNN read.