BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday that a state-organised consultation gave him a “strong mandate” to oppose neighbouring Ukraine’s EU accession at the European Union summit in Brussels.
The nationalist leader — Russia’s closest partner in the European Union — has raised a series of objections and obstacles to Kyiv’s integration into the 27-nation bloc.
Since such decisions require unanimity, that has brought the process to a standstill.
While the latest Hungarian survey carries no legal weight, Orban has since 2015 frequently used such questionnaires, backed by extensive multimedia campaigns, to justify his opposition to key EU policies.
Official results show that more than 95 percent of those who took part in the consultation rejected Ukraine’s EU bid.
According to the government about 2.3 million — less than a third of Hungarian voters — participated in the mail-in and online ballot, which was conducted over 67 days.
“I arrived here with a strong mandate. My voice has become deeper and more masculine,“ Orban told reporters.
“After all, it is on behalf of more than two million Hungarians that I will say today at the negotiations that Hungary does not support Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.”
Kyiv dismissed the significance of the survey. It accused Budapest of manipulating the public with “anti-Ukrainian hysteria” to distract from its “failures” at home.
“The Hungarian government made every possible effort to secure the outcome it desired,“ Ukraine’s foreign ministry said in a statement earlier this week.
“The consultations were accompanied by aggressive incitement of groundless hatred toward everything related to Ukraine,“ it added.
Hungary’s government sent a leaflet to households along with the mail-in ballots, listing only the alleged risks of Ukraine’s entrance to the EU without any possible benefits.
Orban backed Ukraine’s EU membership bid months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion against Ukraine in 2022, only to reverse his stance later.
