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Washington and Moscow both said they would work with incoming Hungarian premier Péter Magyar, who has defeated longtime leader Viktor Orbán — a close ally to both the US and the Russian presidents.
Donald Trump on Wednesday told ABC News that Magyar is a “good man” who will “do a good job”. The US president also tried to distance himself from Orbán, even though he had endorsed him in the run-up to Sunday’s election, which Magyar won in a landslide.
“He was behind substantially,” Trump said of Orbán. “I wasn’t that involved in this one. Viktor’s a good man, though,” Trump added, despite his multiple social media endorsements of the Hungarian leader and a live call during a Budapest rally he had sent vice-president JD Vance to.
Magyar said he was “very pleased that the US president said we would be able to co-operate well and that he spoke of me in quite friendly terms”.
The Kremlin on Tuesday welcomed Magyar’s suggestion that Hungary would retain a level of co-operation with Russia on energy, given their geographic proximity.
“For now, we can note with satisfaction, as far as we understand, his willingness to engage in pragmatic dialogue,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “There is mutual willingness on our part, and we will then proceed to take our cue from the specific steps taken by the new Hungarian government.”
Magyar has vowed to reset relations with Moscow, ending what he called the “puppet” regime of Orbán, and making it clear that his main priority was to restore relations with the EU and Nato. But he said Russian energy imports would remain an option.
Russia is building a nuclear power plant in central Hungary and will press for that project to go ahead, even as Magyar has said plans had to be revisited because they were prohibitively expensive.
State monopoly Rosatom’s chief Alexei Likhachev told reporters: “We’ll have to pass an exam . . . on the effectiveness of the project, the justification for its price and other parameters. We are absolutely ready for this exam.”
Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok on Wednesday met Magyar as part of the formal process to entrust him with forming a new government. Magyar said he asked Sulyok, an Orbán nominee, to step down after the new government took office.
“I told him if he doesn’t leave office we will modify the constitution,” Magyar said. His Tisza party has a supermajority in the new parliament, which will convene for the first time next month.
The incoming government will engage with the European Commission to unlock billions of frozen EU funds as soon as it takes office in mid-May, Magyar said.
“The timeframe is tight, billions of euros worth of funds will have to be locked in before August. Not only agree on them but launch the projects, too . . . Hungary has lagged other member states by several years.”
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