“On the road to a beautiful victory. It’s in the bag!” The only European Union (EU) leader to have openly supported Donald Trump’s campaign, Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban began celebrating the Republican candidate’s claimed victory in the US presidential election on Facebook, in the early hours of Wednesday, November 6.
Trump’s return to the White House is a boon for the authoritarian leader, a figure known for his closeness to the Kremlin, who has been regularly cited as a role model by American Republicans.
With Trump at its helm, the United States will end its criticism of Hungary’s illiberal excesses, as many in the Trump movement admire the limited form of democracy that Orban has built in his country on the banks of the Danube. They are also likely to align themselves with his calls for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Since the start of the 2022 Russian invasion, Orban has been opposed to delivering arms to Kyiv, and has regularly repeated that Trump could obtain a ceasefire “in 24 hours.”
In shock
As Hungary’s prime minister prepares to host a summit of the European Political Community and an informal meeting of EU national leaders in Budapest, November 7-8, he will be able to parade his glee amid a group of mostly shocked European leaders, with the possible exception of his Slovakian ally, Prime Minister Robert Fico. As he has been doing for months, Orban will, once again, call for European military support for Ukraine to be re-evaluated, but now would do so knowing that he will soon be able to count on an ally in Washington.
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“If what we expect happens and America becomes pro-peace, then Europe cannot remain pro-war,” he warned on November 3, repeating his simplistic description of the camp in favor of ending support for Kyiv.
“Europe cannot bear alone the burden of this war into which the leaders of the European institutions have dragged it,” continued the Hungarian leader, who has been arguing, for weeks, that “Ukraine has lost the war militarily.”
A common dislike
Beyond Ukraine, Trump and Orban share a common dislike of the EU. Even if Orban does not wish to leave the Union, he has dreamt of weakening the current EU institutions, so that he can carry out his authoritarian plans without fearing sanctions from Brussels. Now that the EU must prepare to face the trade barriers announced by Trump, Orban will redouble his internal efforts to transform it into a mere free-trade zone, with no political clout.
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