‘Intolerant’ PM, endorsed by ally Trump this week, to obtain US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday.
Printed On 14 Feb 2026
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says his nation ought to worry the European Union greater than Russia whereas promising to clear away the EU’s “oppressive equipment” earlier than what appears can be heated parliamentary elections.
Delivering his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Saturday, Orban pledged to push out “the international affect that limits our sovereignty along with its brokers” because the opposition Tisza Celebration maintains an 8 to 12 proportion level lead over Orban’s ruling Fidesz occasion eight weeks from the April 12 elections.
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“Concern-mongering about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is primitive and unserious. Brussels, nevertheless, is a palpable actuality and a supply of imminent hazard,” mentioned the 62-year-old chief, who in contrast the EU to the repressive Soviet regime that dominated Hungary for many years final century.
Since returning to energy for a second time in 2010, Orban has waged a marketing campaign towards “pseudo-civil organisations”, “purchased journalists”, judges and politicians in his drive to construct what he calls an “intolerant state”.
His crackdown on immigration has supplied a blueprint for right-wing leaders, comparable to United States President Donald Trump.
‘Warfare or peace’?
In Saturday’s speech, Orban signalled his work of clearing liberal forces from the nation is barely “half-done”, noting that Trump, who’s backing him to win the upcoming vote, “rebelled towards the liberals’ global-scale enterprise, media and political community, thereby bettering our possibilities as properly”.
On Friday, Trump posted a brand new endorsement of Orban on his Reality Social platform, saying he’s a “really sturdy and highly effective chief with a confirmed observe file of delivering phenomenal outcomes”.
The US president’s feedback got here as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepares to go to Hungary on Sunday. Rubio will fly in from the Munich Safety Convention in Germany with a stopover in Slovakia for talks with nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Orban, who has cultivated warm relations with Putin throughout his present stretch in energy, this week forged the April elections as a stark selection between “conflict or peace”, warning in a Fb put up that Peter Magyar’s Tisza Celebration would drag the nation into the battle raging subsequent door in Ukraine.
The prime minister has doubled down on his technique of portraying Magyar as a “Brussels puppet” with billboards depicting him saying “sure” to a requirement for “Cash for Ukraine!” from European Fee President Ursula von der Leyen.
