Moscow urges to strengthen ties with Orbán and Vucic, who have avoided showing their relationship with Russia during the campaign in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin congratulated two of his allies on Monday for the comfortable victory they have achieved in the presidential elections in Hungary and Serbia. Nationalist leader Victor Orbán and populist Alexander Vucic, both with links to Moscow, emerged victorious after campaigns in which the two political figures cautiously maneuvered their response to the Ukraine invasion. Once the elections have been held, and seeing the results that position them in command of both European countries, the closeness with their Russian counterpart has been reestablished.
To Orbán, on the one hand, he wished in a statement to “further develop the bilateral relationship” in the interest of Russia and Hungary, despite “the complex international situation.” On the other hand, he issued a telegram to Vucic in which he indicated that “his actions as head of state will continue to favor a reinforcement of the strategic cooperation that exists between our countries.” His victory, Putin considered, reveals a “great support” of the Serbs for his policy, which aims to solve the “current socio-economic” problems and carry out an “independent foreign policy.”
The Hungarian rightist, who reached 53% of the vote against 35% of the left-wing bloc, achieving his fifth victory at the head of the country and thus becoming the current longest-serving ruler in Europe, has a strong link with Moscow although in the last month he has stayed out of the Ukrainian conflict. During his campaign he backed the European Union’s adoption of various sanctions packages against Russia in retaliation for the invasion. However, he strongly opposed any measure that could affect the energy supply. He also ruled out sending weapons to Ukraine and called Zelensky one of his “adversaries”.
He also launched a harsh message against the European Executive, whose members he called “Brussels bureaucrats.” The European Commission, for its part, avoided commenting on Orbán’s electoral victory after a campaign full of attacks against the entity. Although he did show his support for the Ukrainian people again.
Profit from the invasion
At first, Vucic’s election campaign was going to focus on the environment, corruption and rights, but he took advantage of the war in the East, presenting himself as the only one capable of steering the country through the storm. His new slogan was ‘Peace. Stability. Vucic’. The results were most favourable. He achieved 60% of the vote, a record in the last ten years, compared to 17.6% that the opposition added, which gave him a second term. Since the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine, the Vucic government has officially condemned Moscow before the UN, although it has refrained from applying any sanctions against the Kremlin. The Balkan country is traditionally close to Russia. In fact, many Serbs support Putin’s policy and speak out in favor of the invasion.
As soon as his new term began, Orbán promoted a referendum to limit the dissemination of LGTBI content, which resulted in an overwhelming support of almost 90% in favor. However, with 44%, the minimum participation was not enough to be considered valid.
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