BUDAPEST – Darkness over the war in Ukraine and Sunday’s elections in Hungary and Serbia seem to have extended the terms of two of Europe’s Kremlin allies. The two populist strongmen, strengthened by their extreme control over the media and Russia’s cheap power.
With more than 60 percent of the vote counted in Hungary, preliminary results suggest that Victor Orban has won a fourth consecutive term, despite accusations by Hungary’s prime minister since 2010 and already long-serving European leader Victor Orban that Russia’s military offensive. Russian President Vladimir V
“We’m had a big hit, maybe you can see it from the moon, of course from Brussels,” he said. Orban told a cheering crowd of supporters late Sunday. LGBTQ and the rights of immigrants in violation of the democratic will of the Hungarian electorate.
He said his ruling Fidesz party, a Central European country next to Ukraine, could break the increasingly dictatorial grip of an unusually united opposition camp.
Speaking in his capital, Kiev, early Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zhelensky described Mr Orban as “the only one in Europe who openly supports Mr Putin.”
After voting in Budapest on Sunday morning, Mr. When asked about Jelensky’s assessment, Mr. Orban said briefly: “Mr. Zhelensky did not vote today. Thanks. Any other questions? “
Serbian President Alexander Vusic, who has been friendly with Moscow, has ruled Serbia since 2012 and is expected to mobilize his nationalist and pro-Russian base to refuse to join the EU in imposing sanctions on Russia and win re-election. Serbia hopes to become a member of the European camp, but its application has been suspended.
Authorities in Serbia forced polling stations to remain open until the evening, with some 60 percent of voters turning out for the polls. Amid complaints of abuse by the opposition, the Central Electoral Commission in the capital, Belgrade, said it would not release the results until Monday morning.
But outgoing polls, Mr. Vui indicated that he would win the new presidency and that his Serbian progressive party would retain its grip on parliament, albeit with a narrow majority. The opposition claimed control of the municipal government in Belgrade.
Hungary and Serbia have very different histories. Mr. Until Orban came to power, he ruled a country that at the hands of Russia viewed Russia with great distrust as a result of past suffering, especially in 1956 when Moscow sent troops to brutally suppress the anti-communist uprising. Mr. Vusic, however, the nation – like Slavic and Orthodox Christians, like Russia – has long seen Moscow as its ally and defender.
But under two strong leaders, both countries have drastically reduced the space for critical media voices over the past decade, turning national-level television stations into propaganda bullhorns and moving towards dictatorial rule. Approving the election campaign of the Hungarian leader who visited Moscow in February shortly before the invasion of Ukraine.
Hungary, which has been a member of the European Union since 2004, refused to impose sanctions on Russia when it agreed to the initial round of European sanctions.
Unlike the leaders in neighboring Poland, Mr. Because of their shared hostility to the liberal values of Orban’s close ally, the Hungarian leader refused to send to his country the weapons assigned to Ukraine.
In the run-up to Hungary’s election, he said his policy on Ukraine had betrayed not only foreign allies, but also Hungary’s painful memories of Russia’s occupation. Orban retaliated. Mr. Orban mobilized the media, most of which are controlled by government and allied bosses, to portray his opponents as warlords who are bent on sending Hungarian troops to fight against Russia. The election offered “a choice between war and peace,” pro-government media warned.
The campaign seems to have worked, even among some older voters who remember the suffering caused by Moscow’s troops in 1956. “Why should Hungarian boys fight for Ukraine?” Janos Diozeki, who was 13 during the Hungarian uprising, asked his father, who had been imprisoned for 14 years by pro-Soviet authorities for his role in the anti-Moscow uprising. When he voted in Nagikovachi, a small town near Budapest, he said “of course” that Mr. Orban said Fidesz had chosen the party.
Echoing a line frequently aired in the media controlled by Fidesz, Mr. Dioszegi said Ukraine did not need to help defend itself because it had become a “US military base” and provoked war.
Mr. Until Putin sends troops into Ukraine on February 24, Mr. Central to Orban’s election campaign is the referendum on the day of the parliamentary election on whether transgender surgery should be taught to young children in school. And unrestricted exposure to explicit sexual content.
However, the next war in Ukraine was to focus voters’ attention on transgender people and homosexuals. Orban’s attempt was thwarted and he was forced to focus on portraying his enemies as eager to take Hungary to war.
When hundreds of pro-Ukrainian Hungarians and refugees from Ukraine denounced sitting on the government battlefield fence in central Budapest on Saturday, state-run mainstream television M1 described the event as a “pro-war rally”. Anna Olishevska, a 24-year-old Ukrainian from Kiev who took part, praised ordinary Hungarians for helping her after crossing the border. More than 500,000 Ukrainians have entered Hungary in the past month, far fewer than the more than two million who entered Poland, but the poisonous hostility against foreign immigrants has long been a source of concern. Political platform.
Mrs. delighted to see her welcome in Hungary. Mr Olyshevsky said the government was too temporary to condemn Russia’s invasion and that Ukraine was opposed to helping it defend itself. Orban also said he was worried about staying in Hungary if he won another time.
“I can not be in a country where the government supports Russia,” he said. Putin waved the hand-drawn board as to where to mount his rockets.
Mr. Some key supporters of Orban’s party have blamed Ukraine for the 1956 bloodshed, said Maria Schmidt, a historian and museum director. They lie Soviet leader Nikita S., who ordered the deployment of troops into Hungary that year. Khrushchev was a Ukrainian. He is Russian. Ms. Schmidt misrepresented the Soviet leader’s appearance Tweet from British comedian John Cleese, He urged Hungarian voters to consider whether Russia or Ukraine had invaded Hungary in 1956.
A blizzard of distortions and lies in the Hungarian media controlled by Fitzgerald has left opposition supporters in despair.
“They keep telling lies day by day,” said 81-year-old doctor Judith Barna outside the central Budapest polling station, where she voted for a united opposition ticket led by the conservative small town of Peter Margi J. Mayor.
In 1989, he called for the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Referring to Orban’s early political career as a brand of arson against Moscow, he asked: “How is that possible after 40 years of Soviet occupation and 30 years of democracy? Can you say, ‘Russians, go home’ that Russia is now waging a just war in Ukraine?
Thanks to Fitzgerald’s strangulation of the media, he added: “Half of Hungary’s population eats these lies. This is a disgrace to Hungary.”
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