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Politico (25 February 2026)

Max Griera, Zoya Sheftalovich and Nicholas Vinocur

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has decided a showdown with Brussels is exactly what his flagging election campaign needs. 

Orbán is on the back foot at home — trailing his rival Péter Magyar by some 8 percentage points in polls ahead of the April 12 election. So he’s gone on the attack against two of his favorite bogeymen abroad: Brussels and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. 

In doing so he’s trying to set a trap for Magyar, the 44-year-old member of the European Parliament who is on track to beat him.

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