POLITICO: Hungary plans Ukraine-sceptic bloc with Czechia and Slovakia

Hungary is seeking to establish a Ukraine-sceptic front within the European Union together with Czechia and Slovakia, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, said.

He noted that Budapest aims to coordinate with Czech politician Andrej Babiš, whose right-wing populist movement recently won the parliamentary elections, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Caliber.Az reports via POLITICO.

The plan is to align their stances before EU leaders’ meetings and possibly hold joint consultations ahead of summits. Although the creation of a formal alliance is still distant, such coordination could hinder the EU’s financial and military support for Ukraine.

“I think it will come — and be more and more visible,” Balázs Orbán said, when asked about the likelihood of a Ukraine-sceptic bloc emerging in the European Council.

“It worked very well during the migration crisis. That’s how we could resist,” he emphasised, referring to the earlier Visegrad 4 group, which included Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, and Poland when the Eurosceptic Law and Justice Party governed Warsaw after 2015.

At the time, then-Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki played a leading role in the coalition, which championed pro-family policies, defended strict external EU borders, and opposed mandatory relocation of migrants across member states.

The Visegrad 4 later fractured after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Poland adopted a hard-line stance toward Moscow, while Hungary pursued the opposite approach.

A renewed version of the bloc would therefore consist of three members instead of four.

Poland’s current centre-right leader, Donald Tusk, maintains strong support for Ukraine and is unlikely to cooperate with Orbán.

By contrast, both Fico and Babiš have expressed views similar to the Hungarian prime minister’s, urging engagement with Moscow rather than pressure through sanctions.

Babiš has faced criticism for his reluctance to back further EU aid to Kyiv; Czechia’s current foreign minister warned in POLITICO that Babiš could act as Orbán’s “puppet” at the European Council. Still, any revival of the Visegrad alliance may take time.

Fico, re-elected as Slovakia’s prime minister in 2023, has so far avoided binding policy alignments with Budapest, while Babiš has yet to form a government following his party’s recent victory.

By Jeyhun Aghazada