“Hungary is a country neighboring Ukraine,” Orbán said. “If there is a country in Europe that knows what war is like, it is Hungary […] because it’s happening in our neighborhood, and we know how important peace is. We appreciate […] the decision of the people of Georgia, who split in favor of peace, and I congratulate you on the fact that you […] did not allow your country to become a second Ukraine,” he said.

Orbán also emphasized the legitimacy of the election results. “I read the assessment of international organizations and I see that nobody dares question that this election was a fair and democratic election,” Orbán told the press. “Alongside all the criticism, nobody dared go that far.”

Yet, election monitors, including those from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, which has 57 member states, reported a series of violations on Oct. 27, following the country’s election the day before. While stopping short of calling the outcome fraudulent, the groups claimed that alleged abuses, such as ballot-stuffing, bribery, voter intimidation and violence near polling stations, could have affected the result. Others made bolder claims.

“This election was stolen,” Georgia’s President Salome Zourabichvili told French broadcaster RFI. The Paris-born former French diplomat dismissed the results of any recount by the central electoral commission, “which is completely in the hands of the party that’s in power,” she said. Instead, Zourabichvili called for “very strong pressure by the international community on authorities to really and fully review results.”

Sharing the President’s disdain, thousands of Georgians protested the results of the election on the street of Tbilisi on Oct. 29. According to Reuters footage, Orbán appeared to be booed by a crowd when emerging from a building in the Georgian capital before entering a motorcade.

Deeper Russian Ties

Critics of the victorious Georgian Dream say the party has deepened ties with Russia and derailed the country from achieving greater integration with Europe. Georgia’s official candidate status for joining the EU was confirmed on Dec. 14, 2023, but it was frozen following legislation introduced by Georgian Dream earlier this year. The new law requires organizations that receive more than 20% of their funding from abroad to register as “agents of foreign influence.”

Hungary passed a similar “Sovereignty Defense” law last year. The law introduced an authority to monitor political interference and prohibits groups, such as political parties or media outlets, from receiving foreign funding. Violators risk up to three years in prison. Believing it contrary to European Union laws and values, the European Commission filed a lawsuit against Hungary over the legislation on Oct. 3.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky presented his plan for victory at an EU summit on October 17. It consists of five main points, including Ukraine joining NATO, increasing its defense capabilities, deterring any new aggression from Russia, achieving economic growth, and developing security infrastructure following the end of hostilities.

“If the plan is supported, we can end the war no later than next year,” Zelensky claimed.

Hungary takes a different view. According to Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director, Zelensky’s “victory plan is the quickest path to the outbreak of a third world war.” Hungary does not support it. At the EU summit, Orbán told the press that Zelensky’s plan involved intensifying the war through NATO countries, which Hungary finds totally unacceptable. The prime minister believes any attempt to further hostilities to be flawed.

“This war cannot be won; we need negotiations,” he told Kossuth Rádió on Oct. 18. “And now, the other 26 countries of the EU are hearing in amazement that President Zelensky has a victory plan. Why? What did he have so far? What they had for a plan so far turned out to be a plan for defeat, and they are now trying to replace it with a victory plan,” Orbán claimed, adding that Hungary would not participate.

In the photo published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM), Deputy Minister Levente Magyar (right), Yulia Hryzina, Deputy of the Supreme Council of Ukraine and chairperson of the Parliamentary Subcommittee on Higher Education, Anatoly Fedoruk, Mayor of Bucha (Bucsa to Hungarians), and Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine for Reconstruction Olexiy Kuleba, meet on Oct. 19. Magyar was visiting a school in Bucha that the Hungarian Interchurch Aid is restoring. Earlier that day, Magyar had spoken at the inauguration of a service center facility, including a clinic, municipal offices and a post office, built with the support of the Hungarian government, in Synyak (known to Hungarians as Szinyák), also in Kyiv County.

Later, Magyar held talks with Andrii Sybiha, the Ukrainian foreign minister, in Kyiv and discussed ways to develop Hungarian-Ukrainian ties and resolve disputed issues, according to state news agency MTI. Magyar said his visit was the third to the neighboring country since the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He reviewed the major areas of bilateral cooperation with the foreign minister and the deputy leaders of three other ministries. “This is a rich cooperation, despite the fact that the agenda is often dominated by debates on certain issues,” Magyar said, adding that “there is serious work going on in the background towards continuously strengthening Hungarian-Ukrainian ties in important areas such as energy.”

This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of November 4, 2024.