Hungary seeks to form anti-Ukrainian bloc with Czech Republic, Slovakia – Politico

Hungary is seeking to unite with the Czech Republic and Slovakia to form an alliance in the European Union that is skeptical of Ukraine. This was stated by political director and adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Balazs Orban in a comment to Politico.

He said Orban hopes to join forces with Andrej Babiš, whose right-wing populist party won the recent Czech parliamentary elections, as well as with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, to coordinate positions ahead of EU leaders' meetings, including a pre-summit.

"I think it will happen – and it will be more and more visible," said Balázs Orbán, the prime minister's political director, when asked about the potential for a Ukraine-skeptical alliance to start acting as a bloc in the European Council.

Politico argues that the unification may take some time, as Fico, who was re-elected prime minister of Slovakia in 2023, has refrained from formally allying with Hungarian leader Orban in specific policy areas, and Babiš has yet to form a government after his party's recent election victory.

Although a solid political alliance is still a long way off, its formation could significantly hamper EU efforts to provide financial and military support to Ukraine, Politico writes.

According to Orban's representative, this will be the so-called restoration of the Visegrad Four group, which included Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, after the Eurosceptic Law and Justice party came to power in Warsaw in 2015.

According to Balazs, this format of association worked very well during the migration crisis. The V4 group promoted a policy of strong external borders for the EU and opposed any mandatory resettlement of migrants between member states.

The Visegrad Four split after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Poland taking a tough stance against Moscow and Hungary taking the opposite.

Therefore, the new Visegrad Alliance will have three, not four members, because it is unlikely that the current center-right Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk, who is a supporter of Ukraine, will enter into any alliance with Orban, writes Politico.

• on October 6, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine will be in the EU – with or without Orban, because it is the choice of the people of Ukraine.
• European ministers are discussing the deprivation of Hungary's voting rights, namely the application of Article 7 of the EU Treaty against Hungary.