While an election in a nation of fewer than ten million people might not always be the stuff of global headlines, Hungary’s was special.
For 16 continuous years it had been governed by Victor Orban who had often clashed with the European Union and took a more friendly approach to Russia than many other NATO states.
Now, following election, the Orban era appears to be coming to an end. And so today I want to look at the Hungarian election and what the change in Budapest might mean for the War in Ukraine, Russia, and Europe more broadly.
A key point to note however is that the Hungarian election was just one election - pitting a long term incumbent against a challenge who was formerly a member of his own party. In other European nations, results are likely to look very different.
But in the context of the war in Ukraine in 2026, this one mattered.
I’m an outside observer and won’t pretend to be particularly well-informed on Bulgarian politics, but the new PM was president until a few months ago, so it doesn’t seem like it’s actually a huge shift. He and his coalition seem more concerned about Bulgaria not helping Ukraine than about preventing the EU from doing so
President in most republics are just figureheads. The system of the US, where the president has actual power, is a relative rarity among republics.
I had read that he had made threats to veto EU stuff as president, which led me to expect that he was more influential. The other reply to my comment has helped me understand a bit more
The Bulgarian president hasn’t the same powers, as say the American president. They can pretty much veto parliamentary decisions, but not too many times. Outside of that, they serve more of a parade position. He gets a bit of extra powers when/if a government resigns, which he had the opportunity to do a few times, only to show how incompetent he truly is. He now has actual power.
Ahh, that explains why he was able to threaten to veto EU stuff as president then. Thanks