Viktor Orban (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)
Nikola Ilic, researcher at the Faculty of Political Sciences, said on April 12 that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's parliamentary election defeat was bad news for the representatives of government in Serbia, who cultivated friendly ties to him, but that it could have a positive impact on the Serbian people.
"Orban was close to the Serbian Progressive Party. They are losing someone from the EU who was willing to accommodate them. That's bad for our government, but it isn't bad for the citizens of our country," Ilic told BETA. According to him, Orban often justified undemocratic practices and abused the right to veto in the European Union, so his support to Serbia was not looked kindly upon by other member states.
"I think the change in government in Hungary will not have a big impact on Serbia's EU integration. The situation in the EU is complex, and Serbia's integration does not depend solely on one member state [...] Orban's support to Serbia was actually a signal for caution to other member states. Orban was a factor of disruption," Ilic believes.
He went on to say that the opposition in Hungary had demonstrated that, despite major inequality built into the election system, unequal treatment in the media and various abuses by the government, "it is possible to beat right-wing populist leaders in an election." He said election winner Peter Magyar's first steps would largely depend on the final number of seats his Tisza party gets in the Hungarian parliament.
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