The EU is risking its strategic autonomy against Putin, Trump or Netanyahu in the Hungarian elections

And the Hungarian elections have a relevance that far exceeds the weight of the country. The EU is risking its strategic autonomy, its ability to act against Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump o Benjamin Netanyahu. The three They actively support Orbán’s re-electionwhich It has acted as its Trojan horse within the bloc and uses its veto power to try to erode it from within.

Only in recent weeks, Orbán has alone blocked the 90 billion loan intended for support Ukraine in the face of the Kremlin’s war of aggression -returning from his favorable vote in December-; has paralyzed the twentieth package of sanctions against Moscow; and has also stopped punitive measures against violent Israeli settlers.

Added to this is the sustained deterioration of the rule of law: Government pressure on judicial independence, structural corruption, misuse of European funds, suffocation of non-affiliated media, de facto ban on Pride marches and other attacks on civil society. The European Parliament describes Hungary as an “electoral autocracy.”

All anti-European radical right forces – integrated into the group Patriots for Europe – support Orbán. But what has most alarmed European leaders are the latest journalistic investigations that suggest that both the Hungarian leader and his Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártóthey leak to the Kremlin, in real time, the content of the discussions in Brussels, including confidential documents.

Although the Hungarian Government has converted the attacks on the EU and Ukraine in the central axis of his campaigncommunity institutions have opted for a low profile, avoiding any movement that could provide ammunition in the final electoral stretch. In just the last few days, Brussels has described as “extremely worrying” the possibility that Orbán is conspiring with Putin against the bloc.

“The vote of April 12 will be the most important for the EU in 2026: what is at stake is that the European Union can emerge stronger, or that it remains fractured and slow to act, weighed down by Hungarian obstruction,” the researcher from the Centre for European Reform Zselyke Csaky.

“If the opposition wins, an opportunity would open which could allow the EU to advance on important issues of foreign policy, enlargement – since Orbán also alone vetoes any progress in kyiv’s accession to the community club – and sanctions,” says Csaky.