According to the French left-liberal paper, the 12 years led by the Hungarian prime minister are the era of the greatest democratic setbacks since the regime change.

The EU and Hungary are threatened by another victory of Viktor Orbán, wrote the left-liberal Le Monde, emphasizing that a possible new national victory does not necessarily mean the strengthening of "illiberal" European positions. The stakes of the April 3 elections are that the EU and Hungary will have to cooperate with Viktor Orbán for another 4 years. According to the French newspaper,

The 12 years led by the Hungarian Prime Minister have been the era of the greatest democratic setbacks since the regime change.

Fidesz , which has "moved to the far right" , should expect close elections, since after twelve years almost the entire opposition lined up behind a single candidate. who won the primaries , can win over Fidesz voters disillusioned by corruption and put an end to the illiberalism with which Orbán has justified every democratic backsliding . Márki-Zay promised to reconcile Hungary with the EU, introduce the euro, join the European Prosecutor's Office and align with NATO's positions regarding the Ukrainian conflict.

"The West is better than the East," he insists, while, as an admirer of the outgoing Prime Minister Putin, he has an ambiguous attitude to the war in Ukraine and emphasizes his neutrality. "Listen, Viktor, do you know what's happening in Mariupol now?" - asked the Ukrainian president at the meeting of the European Council on March 24, and asked Hungary to decide once and for all who it is with. According to Le Monde, "Viktor" certainly knows what's going on in the besieged city by the Sea of ​​Azov, but he manages to ensure that his constituents don't know too much, given the state media's coverage of the conflict from afar.

Since the war, the Prime Minister's popularity has risen, suggesting that the "opposition cocktail" is looking less and less likely to win.

The blunders of the opposition are "constantly slandered by the media machine of power" . The heterogeneous opposition coalition wasted months arguing about their program and the distribution of mandates, not with Viktor Orbán. Fidesz didn't even bother with program writing: Orbán simply travels the country without a journalist, repeating that "voting for the left is like voting for the war camp".

The French left-liberal paper writes: even if the people of Budapest were tired of this propaganda machine, the Hungarians in the countryside remained largely loyal. Corruption has little weight, especially when living standards are improving - even if at a slower rate than in Poland and the Czech Republic - and some opposition parties have their share. The EU must therefore be prepared to cooperate with Viktor Orbán for another four years.

Source: Mandarin

Photo: Viktor Orbán and the European representative group of Fidesz / magyarnemzet.hu