Andrea Szego, Sociology professor at the Budapest College of Management, gave EIR the following assessment of the situation in Hungary on the eve of the national elections April 12: all major world powers have placed their bets on one of the two competing parties. While the United States, Israel, and Russia support the governing party, the European Union and Great Britain support the main opposition.
“Regarding April 12, I believe that the governing party will win the election with a certain majority. This is, of course, only a guess. However, even if this happens, things cannot continue as they have for a long time (this may be the fourth consecutive victory for the governing party), for several reasons,” the main one being the economy.
“Public disappointment runs deep. It is correct to mention Ukraine and the war, but the government’s performance during its last term has been poor. One cannot blame only the international environment: neighboring countries such as the Czech Republic and Poland have achieved significantly better results. Hungary’s GDP growth was only 0.3% in 2025, and although the outlook for 2026 is somewhat better, it remains weak.
The government’s economic performance is its weakest point. The governing party is lucky that the main opposition does not focus on economic issues, but rather on foreign policy topics such as Ukraine. The only difference lies in the framing of these issues, with Russophobia forming the main narrative aligned with its EU and British supporters. I do not think the opposition can win in Hungary with this narrative.”
The opposition party is not even a party, but a collection of groups without a better economic policy. Prof. Szego sees economic policy missing from both sides of the political spectrum in Hungary. “Hungary may be heading toward a political vacuum. In some ways, this situation could be reminiscent of the Weimar period. I believe this is the greatest danger at present.” Read the full interview.
