Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is taking a novel approach to the years-long controversy over whether or not Ukraine should be granted status as a European Union member state: asking the bloc’s existing citizens.
Orbán told Hungarian reporters in Brussels on Thursday evening that Hungary would hold a referendum on this issue, as he does not believe that such a crucial decision should be made “over the heads of the people,” as reported by the Hungarian news outlet Infostart.
The Hungarian prime minister made this announcement at the conclusion of a summit involving all the leaders of the EU member states, where the bloc had been hoping to release a joint statement announcing that it would continue supplying Ukraine with weapons to continue the war against Russia. Orbán, as the only EU leader to reject the statement, exercised his country’s veto power to prevent it from being made.
All decisions at the EU level must be made unanimously by all member states.
The EU’s scramble to find ways of continuing to support Ukraine comes as the United States has stopped its own aid to the country, given that President Donald Trump is attempting to pressure the country into accepting a ceasefire.
Hungary has called national referendums many times since Orbán was first reelected in 2010, such as in 2016, when one was held on the issue of whether the country should accept receiving quotas of migrants from elsewhere in the EU. Another occurred in 2022, when citizens were given the opportunity to vote for or against Orbán’s legislation aimed at protecting children from gender ideology and pedophilia. Although such referendums are non-binding, they give an indication of how much of the Hungarian public supports the government’s actions.
Affirming the government’s commitment to gauging public opinion on this issue, Fidesz MP Balázs Orbán, who is also Viktor Orbán’s political director, said on Friday that “for the first time, Hungarians have a chance in Europe to decide whether they support Ukraine’s EU membership or not.”
Orbán explained his position on Ukraine’s EU membership by saying that it is not possible to make a responsible decision regarding it under current conditions. He added that allowing Ukraine into the bloc would also have a deep impact on its economy – and not necessarily for the better. “We are not prepared for this,” he indicated.
Orbán further stated that he does not think the EU’s economy, and certainly not Hungary’s, is capable of continuing to bear the burden of sending aid to the beleaguered and war-ravaged nation.
“26 out of 27 member states argued that Ukraine should continue the war,” he emphasized. “Hungary remained on the side of peace.”
He went on to say that Europe should instead “support the president of the United States with the greatest possible strength and energy in order to ensure the success of peace negotiations.”
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