On Péter Magyar Removing the Mention of Ukraine’s Accelerated Accession...

Regarding the fact that Péter Magyar removed the mention of Ukraine’s accelerated accession from the EU’s final communiqué.

Yesterday the shit factories presented this as some incredible betrayal by Hungary, which in fact is not even close to reality. But there was such a flood of news yesterday that there was simply no chance to say anything about it.

I had not planned to return to this topic, but today I saw a post in Resurgam, which said exactly what I wanted to say. I will retell it (the original is in two parts: 1, 2).

Resurgam:

1. “Look at Magyar bragging about removing the phrase on Ukraine’s accelerated accession.”

▪️A sufficient number of EU countries oppose Ukraine’s accelerated accession, but in principle, informally, Ukrainian European integration has already been accelerated.

▪️In other words, removing it from the communiqué has no practical role, but it allows Magyar to maintain popularity inside his own country and counter Orbán’s Fidesz.

2. Why was it so important for Magyar to emphasize this?

▪️Magyar unblocked the opening of clusters concerning Ukraine’s accession to the EU. This gave Orbán’s Fidesz room to manipulate the pseudo-referendum in which Hungarians supposedly spoke out against Ukraine’s accession. As in: “Magyar does not respect the will of the people.”

▪️Therefore, by declaring that he was obstructing Ukraine’s accelerated accession, Magyar is balancing within the domestic market of political preferences. It is important for Ukraine that Magyar remain popular, because the alternative is Orbán’s Fidesz.

3. It is important to separate what is key from what is background.

▪️The key things from Magyar were lifting Hungary’s veto on sanctions, opening the clusters, and unblocking the European Peace Facility — all of this has been unblocked. Even more: Hungary supported the EU decision to review the extension of sanctions against the Russian Federation once a year, rather than once every six months as before.

▪️The background is, in fact, the statements Magyar makes for the domestic audience — and a significant part of Orbán’s Fidesz electorate is now among his base.

▪️The fact that Magyar blocked in the text something that was already impossible in practical terms... (changes nothing, ed.).

4. Information attention is less focused on other background things that are already positive.

▪️Magyar’s government lifted Orbán’s ban on Ukrainian media in Hungary. Culture Minister Zoltán Tarr said it was necessary to ensure that the Ukrainian community in Hungary has access to information in the Ukrainian language.

▪️Magyar initiated an investigation to punish Hungarian services involved in the lawlessness with Oschadbank cash collectors.

▪️Unfortunately, minimal emphasis is placed on this, while attention is focused only on the fact that “someone did something wrong, and not in the form required.” This destroys one’s own society and turns it into a toxic environment.

5. “But Magyar is against opening all negotiating clusters simultaneously.”

▪️The EU has no rule that would open all clusters simultaneously. To open each specific cluster, a country must complete the opening of the “Fundamentals” cluster.

▪️Yes, with political will the rules can be bypassed (informally, Ukraine has already been working on all clusters since 2025). This idea is popular, but it has opponents, and not only Hungary.

▪️Why? Because it likely means advance opening for Moldova as well (Ukraine and Moldova move as a pair). And then it breaks the logic of enlargement for other countries that are following the traditional path.

6. Magyar’s goals.

▪️Hungary is preparing for snap presidential and local elections under a new system. The current president, Tamás Sulyok, is a Fidesz man. Seventy percent of local communities are controlled by Orbán’s Fidesz.

▪️After these elections, the system will be able to fully renew itself away from Orbán, and to do that it needs to repeat the success of the parliamentary elections.

7. This is not about defending Magyar.

▪️With Magyar there will be ups and downs and conflicts. This post is not about that, but about the ability to look at what motives others are guided by — and those motives are not always hostility toward Ukraine and Ukrainians.

▪️That makes the world more understandable and less hostile. And as much clarity and predictability as possible is an important psychological need for resilience during war, Resurgam concludes.

Many thanks to the guys for an excellent analysis. It is a great piece of luck that there are channels able to put two and two together, rather than just carry around a fragment of a headline with a pile of lightning bolts and angry emojis.