Ukraine updates: Russian energy grid attacks wound many – DW – 06/01/2024

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban spoke at an election rally in Budapest on Saturday, as his campaign leans increasingly into his government’s isolated position within the EU opposing support for Ukraine. 

Orban told the crowd, many of whom carried banners with slogans like “No war,” that he had been “fighting for peace alone” in the EU. 

“We have the largest electoral army… we are Europe’s largest peace-keeping force,” he told the crowd, predicting a “great victory” in European Parliament elections and also Hungarian local elections that are taking place in tandem. 

The large crowd marched along the banks of the Danube river in central Budapest.

Orban has refused to send weapons to Ukraine and has also sought to block efforts to do so on a small scale at a centralized EU level. Most military aid to Ukraine is bilateral in any case, though. 

He’s also secured exemptions for Hungary to various sanctions against Russia, particularly pertaining to energy imports, and in recent weeks has accused NATO and Brussels of “dragging” Hungary into war over Ukraine. He even likened it to the pressure from Adolf Hitler for Hungary to join World War II on the side of the Nazis.

The prime minister recently said that his lawyers were already working on a plan of his to “redefine” Hungary’s NATO membership, to prevent any participation in operations “outside NATO territory.”

His party, Fidesz, is by far the strongest in the country, polling close to 50% and with almost double the support of any other group. A strong performance in next week’s vote seems assured. 

However, with a population of less than 10 million, Hungary’s influence is marginal at the European Parliament, where voting power roughly corresponds to the size of a member state.