“This is our country. Hungarian history is not written in Washington, Moscow or Brussels,” opposition leader Péter Magyar said as US Vice President JD Vance arrived in Budapest this week to campaign for PM Viktor Orbán—a moment that may come to define the final days of Hungary’s most consequential election in years. Marcin Zaborowski, Europe Editor at TVP World, told the channel’s News in Depth program that the April 12 vote is not only a test of Orbán’s 16-year grip on power, but also a referendum on the political model he helped build: nationalist, confrontational toward Brussels and increasingly accommodating toward Moscow. In his younger days, Orbán demanded free elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from his country. Today, he defends continued cooperation with Russia. For Zaborowski, the shift is startling. He described the Hungarian leader as once “clearly idealistic,” but now “the great backer of Russia in the European Union.” Voter frustration Once seen as a post-communist success story, Hungary now faces deep voter frustration over stagnation, while Orbán’s standard campaign formula—identifying an external enemy—may be losing its force. “In the past, they were communists. Then there were migrants. Then it was Soros. Then it was the IMF. And now it’s the Ukrainians,” Zaborowski said, adding that the public’s trust in that narrative has worn thin after so many years in office. Orbán’s strategy has again centered on what he depicts as foreign threats, especially Brussels and Ukraine. But this time, Zaborowski said, portraying Ukraine as Hungary’s “arch-enemy” while maintaining warm ties with Vladimir Putin “is just beyond belief.” Stakes go beyond Hungary’s borders Zaborowski called the US vice president’s appearance in Hungary to support Orbán “blatant election interference,” but argued it may not deliver the result Washington wants. In Zaborowski’s reading, the contradiction was central: Vance condemned outside influence while practicing it in plain sight. Independent polling published this week showed Magyar’s Tisza party ahead of Orbán’s ruling Fidesz, even if Hungary’s electoral system still complicates the opposition’s path to power. For Zaborowski, the stakes go well beyond Hungary’s borders. If Orbán survives, he said, pressure will grow inside the EU to rethink rules that allow a single member state to obstruct decisions backed by the other 26. “We no longer can carry on in this situation in which one country can block the strategic interests of the remaining 26 member states,” he said.
