Hungary demands influence over Ukraine's EU accession path
There will be no accession of Ukraine to the European Union without Hungary's consent, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban wrote on Sunday. This statement followed the criticism from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday about the stance of the Hungarian authorities.
"What the Hungarian people think is not decided by the president in Kyiv or the bureaucrats in Brussels. There is no Ukrainian EU accession without Hungary. Every Hungarian will have their say on this. Whether you like it or not. That’s how we do things here," Orban wrote on the X platform.
Zelensky remarked, as quoted by the Ukrainian Pravda service, that Orban is attempting to use Ukraine's EU accession as a leverage point ahead of Hungary's parliamentary elections scheduled for 2026.
According to Zelensky, this strategy will not produce the outcomes desired by the Hungarian government, as most Hungarians support Ukraine.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also addressed Zelensky's remarks on Saturday.
"The President of Ukraine must accept that every Hungarian has the right to express their views on Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession. After all, Ukraine wants to join a union Hungary is already a member of, not the other way around… Kyiv should choose its tone accordingly," Szijjarto wrote on the X platform.
Currently, a non-binding postal referendum is underway in Hungary where the government is asking citizens for their opinion on Ukraine's accession to the EU.
Referendum in Hungary on Ukraine
The ballots distributed to all households contain one question: "Do you support Ukraine's membership in the European Union?" Every adult citizen is invited to send back their response no later than June 20.
The opposition party TISZA conducted its own referendum between March and April. It found that 58.18% of respondents supported Ukraine's entry into the EU. A total of 1,137,266 people participated in expressing their views.
