Speaking to supporters on Saturday (14 February), Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Brussels posed a greater threat to Hungary than Russia, dismissing concerns over Moscow’s war against Ukraine ahead of Hungary’s pivotal April elections.
“We must get used to the idea that those who love freedom should not fear the East, but Brussels,” the prime minister said.
“Fear-mongering about Putin is primitive and unserious. Brussels, however, is a palpable reality and a source of imminent danger,” he said.
“This is the bitter truth, and we will not tolerate it,” Orban said.
Orbán alleged Fidesz’s main rival, Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar, was backed by Manfred Weber, head of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“We already knew that our real opponents are not the Hungarian opposition parties. Our real opponents are their masters in Brussels,” he said
“It is crystal clear that in Hungary the oil business, the banking world and the Brussels elite are preparing to form a government,” he said. “They need someone in Hungary who will never say no to Brussels’ demands.”
Magyar was a former member of Fidesz who broke from the party in February 2024 after public outcry over a presidential pardon for a man convicted of covering up cases of child sex abuse. He then took over the at the time little-known Tisza party, catapulting it into becoming Hungary’s main opposition party.
Tisza has pledged to end what it describes as Hungary’s “seesaw” foreign policy and align Budapest firmly with the West. Orban pledged to push out “the foreign influence that limits our sovereignty together with its agents” as the opposition Tisza Party maintains an 8 to 12 percentage point lead over Orban’s ruling Fidesz party eight weeks from the April 12 elections.
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