BUDAPEST, Jan 26 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Monday that Hungary would summon Ukraine’s ambassador over what Orban said were attempts to interfere in a Hungarian parliamentary election due on April 12.
Orban has intensified his anti-Ukraine campaign in the past weeks, and has sought to associate Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar with Kyiv and the EU executive in Brussels as the campaign heats up.
As Hungary’s economy stagnates, Orban’s Fidesz party trails the opposition Tisza in most polls.
In a campaign primarily targeting rural voters, Orban has portrayed Ukraine as unworthy of financial support, framing the April vote as a choice between war and peace and echoing his past anti-migrant campaigns.
Orban, who has kept close ties with Moscow, has repeatedly refused to support European Union aid for Ukraine, and has launched a “national petition” asking voters to sign up to say they do not want to help pay for the war.
“Last week, Ukrainian leaders and even the president himself made grossly insulting and threatening statements against Hungary … Our national security services have … concluded this is a coordinated attempt to interfere in Hungarian elections,” Orban said in a video.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry gave no immediate response to a request for comment.
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last Thursday criticised Europe for being a “fragmented kaleidoscope of small and middle powers” lacking the courage to act decisively. He also said Europe should not allow its capitals to become “little Moscow”.
“Every ‘Viktor’ who lives off European money while trying to sell out European interests deserves a smack upside the head,” Zelenskiy said in a speech in Davos.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than;Editing by Kevin Liffey)
