Tuesday 14 / April / 2026
Budapest: At the heart of Peter Magyar’s victory in the Hungarian parliamentary election on April 12 was more than just anger at high-level corruption and economic hardship.
His win was also a repudiation of Viktor Orban’s “illiberal democracy,” a rejection of his drift away from the European mainstream and a warning not to stray too close to Moscow’s orbit.
Two of his closest allies — prime ministers Robert Fico of Slovakia and Andrej Babis of Czechia — moved relatively swiftly to congratulate Magyar. But the congratulations were carefully worded and hardly gushing with praise.
“Facing such a strong opponent as Viktor Orban was never easy, yet he earned the trust of the majority of Hungarians and carries great hopes and expectations,” Babis wrote on X. “He must not disappoint.”
His Slovak counterpart, Fico, is known for releasing lengthy video messages and long press statements. This time, however, journalists received a terse email with three bullet points.
“I fully respect the decision of Hungarian voters,” Fico said, adding he was ready for “intensive cooperation” with the new government in Budapest.Slovakia’s priorities unchanged
Fico said that Slovakia’s priorities remained unchanged. These include reviving the Visegrad Group (an informal alliance between Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia), protecting shared energy interests and restoring Russian oil supplies to Slovakia and Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline.
Those supplies have been halted since January, after what Kyiv said were Russian drone and missile attacks on a section of the pipeline in Ukraine.
They might now be restored: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said recently that repairs could begin in the next few weeks.
Uncertainty facing Central Europe
The carefully calibrated responses from Bratislava and Prague reflect both the scale of the political shift in Budapest and the uncertainty now facing Central Europe, where Orban had long been the central figure in a loose alliance of nationalist and populist leaders.
Orban, after all, co-founded the euroskeptic Patriots for Europe group alongside Babis in 2024.
For the Czech and Slovak leaders, the outcome of the election is not only symbolic, but potentially significant for their own political positioning.
What Orban’s defeat means for Fico
“The biggest threat to Russia is a free, independent and democratic Ukraine,” said Martin Poliacik, a former Slovak MP affiliated with the opposition Progressive Slovakia party.
“By extension, the biggest threat to Fico is a pro-European Hungary, because Slovaks would see that this is possible,” Poliacik told DW.
Orban’s defeat also deprives Fico of a key partner on the European stage. The Hungarian leader was seen as a interlocutor with both Moscow and Washington.
Fico now Putin’s man in Europe?
Some now believe Russia, at least, will turn its full attention to Slovakia.
Poliacik, however, expressed doubts that Fico could step into Orban’s shoes as Putin’s man in Europe.
“He’s tired,” he said, adding that Fico also lacked a strong team of capable and combative enforcers, unlike Orban.
The Slovak leader had threatened to block the EU’s €90-billion loan for Kyiv if Orban was defeated, but some doubt he is really ready to defy the rest of the EU on his own.
Will Magyar’s election bring stability?
But even with Orban out of power, analysts caution that the shift in Hungary may not lead to long-term stability.
“I think it’s really hard to stay in power in Europe right now,” said Poliacik. “Every status quo is hard to keep. It’s like a swinging pendulum.”
That volatility is well understood in Prague.
Andrej Babis returned to power in late 2025 at the head of a coalition including his ANO movement, the conservative Motorists for Themselves party and the far-right, anti-immigrant SPD.
Critics argue that the government is already seeking to reshape key elements of Czechia’s liberal democratic system, including public media and the role of civil society, taking a leaf right out of the Orban playbook.
Supporters — as well as Babis himself — have rejected that characterisation.
Limits on what Babis can do in Czechia
Analysts, meanwhile, point out that there are structural limits to what Babis can achieve in the Czech setting.
“Babis realised during his first term as prime minister that he can’t control the country the way Orban can,” said Czech political commentator Jindrich Sidlo.
“Orban governed much longer, had very different electoral results, there’s no Senate [Czech upper house of parliament] in Hungary, and he was able to shape the electoral system to his advantage,” he told DW.
“That’s something Babis might have envied, but I think he now understands it’s not realistic in the Czech Republic. Even changing the electoral law requires agreement between the Chamber and the Senate — you can’t force it through,” he said. “So, Babis is, in that sense, a much weaker version of Orban.”
