Politics

Putin congratulates Orban on Hungarian election victory

Moscow, Apr 4 (EFE).- Russia’s president Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Hungarian nationalist prime minister Viktor Orban for winning a fourth term in office by a landslide in the country’s general elections.

In a Telegram message sent to Orban, Putin’s closest ally in the European Union, the Russian leader expressed confidence that “despite the difficult international situation, the further development of bilateral ties of partnership fully meets the interests of the peoples of Russia and Hungary.”

Orban declared himself the winner in Sunday’s elections in comments to thousands of supporters who chanted his name in Budapest.

“We have secured an enormous victory,” said the 58-year-old premier. “A victory that perhaps could have been seen from the Moon, and certainly from Brussels.”

Orban was swiping at the European Commission, which criticized him for his stance on the war in Ukraine and recently opened an investigation into the Hungarian law that prohibits talking about homosexuality to minors.

The prime minister, a ferocious critic of immigration into Hungary, LGBT rights and “EU bureaucrats,” has won the admiration of nationalists and the European ultralight.

Orban’s win comes as Hungary is experiencing a period of significant international isolation, including from its partners in the Visegrad Group – Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – for his closeness to Putin, while in Western European governments he arouses little if any, enthusiasm.EFE

mos/smq/mp

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