WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE EU - euobserver daily - Thursday 17 April 2025

Good morning,

If Brexit showed the difficulties of leaving the EU voluntarily, Viktor Orbán's Hungary shows the problems of having an unwelcome house guest who refuses to behave or leave, even after the party is over.

More than that — damages the furniture, steals from the wallet in the hallway, and invites his own unwelcome friends in to gatecrash the party.

I've often wondered how, at EU summits, the other EU-26 leaders can speak freely in front of Orbán, knowing there's a snitch around the table, and anything they say he could later report back to his boss, Vladimir Putin. And if you think that's too harsh, ask yourself who's the boss in the Putin-Orbán relationship.

And then have a read of Roland Papp’s analysis today of the motives behind Orbán’s ongoing non-binding national ‘ballot’ on allowing Ukraine to join the EU.

There's been plenty of coverage in recent weeks of Orbán's grotesque and inhuman banning of Budapest Gay Pride — on so-called child protection grounds. Less on the prospects of Orbán possibly meeting his electoral comeuppance in 2026.

Trailing in the polls to an ex-Fidesz insider turned renegade, Péter Magyar, Orbán — as our opinion piece by Marius Dragomir explains — is scrambling around for new scapegoats to demonise. He's tried foreigners, he's tried George Soros, he's tried the domestic independent media (not that there's much left in Hungary), he's tried the gays and the lesbians, but now in Magyar (and this is no form of endorsement from EUobserver), he might have met his match. Gamekeeper turned poacher. And game recognises game.

Of course, we've been here before. In 2022, six Hungarian opposition parties formed a common platform, under Péter Márki-Zay, to take on Orbán. And lost.

There was a time when every EUobserver article critical of Orbán, or just of Fidesz, was met by an immediate demand for a right-to-reply by his government flunkeys. Always happy to oblige — although on one occasion a few years ago, I had to cut a paragraph of amateurishly disguised dogwhistle anti-semitism about 'global cabals of financiers'. And was rewarded by having the emails leaked to some tame Hungarian media outlet and accused of “censorship”. The irony.

Such pleasant people. (The Hungarian government, that is — actual Hungarians I know are very pleasant and delightful.)

- Matt Tempest, opinion editor

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