Orbán's stance on Ukraine pushes Hungary to brink in EU relations

Member states are considering removing the country's voting rights after its attempts to stymie support for Kyiv.

- Jennifer Rankin

The posters are going up all over Hungary. "Let's not allow them to decide for us," runs the slogan alongside three classic villains of Hungarian government propaganda.

They are: Ukraine's wartime leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the European Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen; and Manfred Weber, the German politician who leads the centre-right European People's party in the European parliament, which counts Hungary's most potent opposition politician among its ranks.

That decision is Ukraine's membership of the EU, a distant prospect not in the gift of any of the politicians now plastered across billboards in Hungary. Ballot papers, being sent out this week, ask a simple question:

"Do you support Ukraine becoming a member of the EU?"

Despite the neutral question, Hungary's government is not standing on the sidelines. After the launch of the campaign, the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, last week urged people to vote, claiming that Ukrainian membership would mean "we would have to spend all Hungary's money on Ukraine".

The government has also claimed without offering evidence that "cheap labour" from Ukraine would take jobs from Hungarians, while epidemics would spread because not enough Ukrainians get vaccinations.

The governing Fidesz party realised that "there is a sentiment against Hungary's involvement in the war", said László Andor, Hungary's EU commissioner from 2010 to 2014. "But ever since, this has been used and abused to deny proper support to Ukraine."

Hungary has repeatedly sought to block EU sanctions against Russia, eventually backing down. It has vetoed the release of €6bn funds to reimburse other EU countries providing military aid to Ukraine and flatly refused to sign two EU declarations in support of its invaded neighbour.