(Bloomberg) — The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said he would take steps to eliminate what he described as opposition “false” forces funded by Brussels, should voters re-elect him to power in the national election in eight weeks.
Orbán described the opposition party Tisza, which leads by a wide margin in independent polls, as a “creation” of the European Union and of German politicians in Brussels who, according to him, would pave the way for Hungarians to be sent to war in Ukraine.
“The Brussels repressive machine is doing its job in Hungary, and we will have to clean that up after April,” Orbán said in a campaign speech in Budapest on Saturday. “Fake NGOs, bought journalists, judges, politicians, algorithms, bureaucrats, millions of euros circulating — that is what Brussels means in Hungary today.”
The speech, delivered to a invited audience and broadcast on Orbán’s Facebook page, had a conspiratorial undertone as his populist Fidesz party heads into the final stretch of the campaign before the vote on April 12.
The prime minister also accused oil giant Shell Plc, a former employer of Tisza’s chief economic adviser Istvan Kapitany, and Austrian Erste Group Bank AG of backing the opposition and profiting from the high energy prices resulting from EU sanctions on Russia.
Read also: Israeli minister confirms presence at Trump’s first Peace Council meeting
“They profit from the war,” Orbán said. “They are the toll collectors of the death tariff; they are the dogs of war.”
Shell declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg, while Erste’s Hungarian unit limited itself to a media statement noting that the bank is against all war and violence.
The Tisza leader, Peter Magyar, a former Fidesz member, is due to speak at a rally on Sunday after taking part in the Munich Security Conference, where he was scheduled to meet with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Orbán has been increasingly isolated within the EU amid allegations of corruption and repression of civil society and the independent media. Hungary has also repeatedly vetoed EU backing to Ukraine in its defense against the Russian invasion.
With independent polls giving Tisza a double-digit lead over the Fidesz, Orbán faces his biggest challenge since taking power 16 years ago, as a slow economy, deteriorating public services and child-protection scandals fuel popular discontent with his government.
Reports this week of toxic emissions at a Samsung battery factory, celebrated by Fidesz as a flagship investment, gave the opposition another reason to attack.
“Who looks for the death-toll collectors need not look further than Samsung and the other battery factories,” Magyar wrote on Facebook on Saturday.
While Orbán repeatedly insists that Hungary’s future rests secure only through close ties with Russia, which he says keeps energy prices down, the reality is more complex.
The extent of energy poverty in a country that slipped in the rankings to become one of Europe’s poorest was evident during the January cold snap, when both parties competed to be filmed handing out free firewood to residents in difficulty.
© 2026 Bloomberg L.P.
