Hungary planning to create anti-Ukrainian bloc in EU with Czechia and Slovakia

According to him, Orbán hopes to unite efforts with Andrej Babiš, whose right-wing populist party won Czechia's recent parliamentary elections, as well as Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, to align positions ahead of EU leaders' meetings, including organizing pre-summit huddles.

As the publication notes, though a solid political alliance is still far off, its formation could significantly hinder the EU's efforts on financial and military support for Ukraine.

"I think it will come — and be more and more visible," Orbán's political director said when asked about the potential for creating a Ukraine-skeptical alliance that could start acting as a bloc in the European Council.

The politician referenced the so-called Visegrád Four, which consisted of Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia and Poland, when after 2015 in Warsaw the euroskeptic party Law and Justice was in power.

Poland's then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki led this initiative as the alliance's largest member, and the group promoted policies aimed at supporting the family, as well as strong external borders for the EU, and opposed any mandatory relocation of migrants between member states.

The Visegrád Four fractured after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Poland took a hard line against Moscow while Hungary took the opposite position.

The new Visegrád alliance would have three members, not four. Poland's current Prime Minister Donald Tusk is a staunch pro-Ukraine leader and is unlikely to form any alliance with Orbán.

Meanwhile, Fico and Babiš hold views on Ukraine similar to Hungary's: they call for dialogue with Moscow rather than economic pressure. Babiš has faced criticism for his public skepticism toward continued European aid to Kyiv, and Czechia's current foreign minister warned that he would act as Orbán's "puppet" at the European Council table.