https://www.bbc.com/russian/news-60978271
Russia's invasion of Ukraine seemed to have greatly complicated the campaign of Viktor Orban, who had to maneuver and explain the reason for his too warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Orban condemned Russian aggression and did not veto EU sanctions against Moscow, although he noted that he did not agree with them. At the same time, he banned the passage of any military equipment for Ukraine through Hungary and continues to insist that there are many advantages in close ties with Russia, including the reliability of gas supplies.
Orban was able to convince his electorate that the promises of the opposition alliance of Peter Markey-Zai to improve relations with the European Union could drag Hungary itself into a military conflict on the side of NATO (the opposition categorically denied such accusations).
As Orban admitted on Sunday, such a convincing victory was a pleasant surprise for him: "We won such a big victory that it can be seen even from the moon, and certainly from Brussels," he said. "We have defended the sovereignty and freedom of Hungary."
“This victory will be remembered for the rest of our lives,” Orban added, “perhaps because we had to fight with the greatest and most overwhelming force: the local left, the international left, the bureaucrats of Brussels, the Soros empire with all its money, the international media and in the end - the Ukrainian president. We've never had so many opponents at the same time." Hungary, which shares a border with Ukraine, has taken in more than half a million refugees from there, but Zelensky has criticized Budapest for refusing to let weapons into Ukraine, to which Orban responded that he was thus keeping his country from entering the conflict.
Orbán's Fidesz-Hungarian Civil Union alliance won 135 seats in parliament, a two-thirds majority, according to preliminary results. The head of the opposition alliance and the leader of the public movement "Hungary for Everyone" Peter Marki-Zai, recognizing Orban's victory, noted that the reason for this was a well-functioning propaganda machine and the dominance of supporters of the ruling party in the media.
"We recognize that Fidesz received an overwhelming majority of votes, but we still question the democracy and freedom of these elections," the opposition politician said.
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