War in Ukraine spills into Hungarian election campaign. 2 hours ago. Nick ThorpeBudapest correspondent. Reuters. War-torn Ukraine “will stop at nothing” to prevent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party winning the upcoming Hungarian elections, the Hungarian government claims. Physical violence against the prime minister and his family, and attacks or sabotage of key energy installations, are being prepared, ministers allege.. The Ukrainian government, in turn, accuses its Hungarian counterpart of whipping up a hate campaign against it to frighten Hungarians into voting Fidesz back into office.. A third party is in the middle: Russia.. The Financial Times reported on Wednesday morning that the Social Design Agency, a Kremlin-linked media consultancy firm, was preparing a mass disinformation campaign in Hungary, to bolster Orbán and discredit the opposition Tisza Party and its leader, Peter Magyar.. With just 30 days to go until the parliamentary election in Hungary, some analysts believe the anti-Ukraine hysteria proves that Orbán is panicking in the face of probable defeat.. His Fidesz party trails to Tisza by 39% to 50% in the latest poll.. Others say Orbán knows his electorate well – and that if they can be convinced that the country is in mortal danger, he could win a remarkable fifth consecutive victory on 12 April.. At the core of the dispute is the disruption of the Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline on which Hungarian and Hungarian-run Slovak refineries depend.. Oil deliveries through the pipeline stopped on 27 January, after a Russian drone strike caused a fire at the Brody oil hub in western Ukraine.. No oil has arrived in Hungary since then.. Last week, Orbán produced satellite images which, according to him, show that the pipeline is intact. He and his ministers accuse Ukraine of delaying repairs, in order to harm Orban’s re-election chances, by causing a fuel shortage in Hungary.. “The Orbán government is not telling the full truth,” András Rácz a security analyst, at the German Council on Foreign Relations, told the BBC, regarding Hungarian government claims that no technical obstacles remain to restarting the flow of Russian oil to Hungary.. In the 27 January Russian attack, Rácz said, an oil tank containing 75 million litres of crude oil at Brody was damaged, and to save the oil and prevent an environmental disaster, it was pumped into the pipeline for storage.. The presence of that oil, and other technical damage resulting from the first and a subsequent Russian attack, prevent the restoration of supply.. Ukraine says it could take six weeks to repair.. The Ukraine hysteria in Hungary takes many forms.. Giant billboards and city lights posters cover the country. Some show Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky begging for money from EU chiefs.. Others juxtapose Zelensky and Peter Magyar. His Tisza is accused of planning to get Hungary involved in the Ukraine war, by joining what is dubbed “the pro-war lobby” in Brus
