Viktor Orbán has played a perfect game with Putin

On 3 April Hungarians will have their ninth set of free parliamentary elections since the collapse of the communist dictatorship in 1989. The winner is likely to be Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz-KDNP coalition, which is leading in five of the six major polls. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will not change that dynamic even though the opposition leader, Péter Márki-Zay has called Orbán a ‘traitor’ for his long-standing friendship with Vladimir Putin.

Ever since Viktor Orbán began his second stint as Hungary’s prime minister in 2010, he has repeatedly played the provocateur within the EU, tweaking the eurocrats’ noses with his cultural conservatism and hostility to mass immigration. His alliance with Putin is only the prickliest manifestation of what Orbán has called an ‘eastern opening’. His plan has been to cultivate economic ties with both the western liberal democracies and a motley collection of illiberal states, notably Russia. His convivial visit to Moscow at the beginning of February displayed the depth and breadth of the Hungarian-Russian alliance and allowed Orbán to present himself as a peacemaker who had Putin’s ear.