Viktor Orbán is no friend of the West

Viktor Orbán‘s victory speech in Budapest on Sunday night took a curious turn. Speaking after a fourth landslide win, he opined:

This victory is one to remember because we had the biggest [opponents] to overpower. The left at home, the international left, the bureaucrats in Brussels… the Soros empire… and even the Ukrainian President.

Orbán skipped over the challenge to regional stability caused by the Russian invasion of neighbouring Ukraine. Having refused military aid to Kyiv, and having exchanged barbs with President Volodymyr Zelensky, he reassured ethnic Hungarians in West Ukraine: ‘Don’t be afraid, the motherland is with you’.

Orbán’s party is raising the prospect of secession of Ukrainian lands, midway through the Russian invasion

Those words make for curious reading days after Csaba Belénessy, a leading figure in the ruling Fidesz party, said publicly that Hungary must ‘be emotionally and financially ready to accept back the Hungarian people and/or the Hungarian territory’. You read that correctly: Orbán’s party is raising the prospect of secession of Ukrainian lands, midway through the Russian invasion.