Skip to content
Search
Human content, AI powered search.

Latest Stories

What We're Watching

Viktor Orbán plays the ethnic card as part of his EU “schtick”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban attends the autumn session of parliament in Budapest, Hungary, September 25, 2023.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban attends the autumn session of parliament in Budapest, Hungary, September 25, 2023.

REUTERS/Bernadett Szabo via Reuters
Alex Kliment
By Alex KlimentSeptember 25, 2023
Alex Kliment
Alex wears a few different caps and tips them all regularly. He writes for the GZERO Daily, works as a field correspondent for GZERO's nationally syndicated TV show GZERO WORLD WITH IAN BREMMER, and writes/directs/voices GZERO's award-winning puppet satire show PUPPET REGIME. Prior to joining GZERO, Alex worked as an analyst covering Russia and broader Emerging Markets for Eurasia Group. He has also written for the Financial Times from Washington, DC, and Sao Paulo Brazil. In his spare time, he makes short films and composes scores for long ones. He studied history and Slavic literature at Columbia and has a Master's from Johns Hopkins SAIS. He's a native New Yorker, a long-suffering Mets fan, and owns too many bicycles.
See Full Bio
Make us preferred on Google

The Hungarian prime minister said Monday he’ll cut all support for Kyiv unless Ukraine addresses the grievances of ethnic Hungarians who live in the country.

Wait, there are Hungarians in Ukraine? Yes, roughly 150,000 of them, mostly in the far-Western region of Zakarpattia (Transcarpathia) along the Hungarian border. Before World War I, Zakarpattia was part of the Austro-Hungarian empire. After that it was kicked around between various powers — Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and the Soviet Union – before becoming part of independent Ukraine in 1991.

In 2014 — when popular protests ousted Ukraine’s pro-Russian president and Moscow illegally annexed Crimea — the new Ukrainian government cracked down on minority language rights in a clumsy effort to curb Russian influence. The measures affected Hungarians in Zakarpattia, creating grievances that Orbán is now exploiting.

Laments about the lost territories of “greater Hungary” are nothing new for the nationalist Orbán. But why is he suddenly losing sleep over the Transcarpathian Hungarians? The answer may have more to do with what’s happening in Brussels than what’s happening in Uzhgorod, the Transcarpathian capital.

For one thing, Hungary is perennially in danger of losing EU funds over Orban’s erosion of democratic norms, so he is always looking for leverage to stop that. Threatening to hold up EU support for Kyiv is a big pressure point and he knows it.

But this winter the European Union will also decide when to welcome new members and whether Ukraine should, at some point, be one of them. As part of that, the Union is drawing up new fiscal rules and may move to scrap the requirement of unanimous agreement by all 27 member states on key issues. Orban does not want that to happen, because it would vaporize his pull within the Union.

So alongside threatening to cut support for Ukraine, he’s also slow-rolling Budapest’s approval for Sweden to join NATO. It’s part of a pattern.

“It's basically blackmail,” says Mij Rahman, Europe director at Eurasia Group. “That's Orban's whole schtick in the EU now.”

putineuroperussia-ukrainegeopoliticspoliticshungaryukraineorban

Latest Videos

What's it like to sleep in space?play icon
GZERO World Clips

What's it like to sleep in space?

Lack of AI governance is a real threat
Quick Take

Lack of AI governance is a real threat

Hormuz Crisis SOLVED with Stroke of a Pen!
Puppet Regime

Hormuz Crisis SOLVED with Stroke of a Pen!

The US and China are racing to settle the moon
GZERO World Clips

The US and China are racing to settle the moon

Humanity's next giant leap in space exploration
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

Humanity's next giant leap in space exploration

The race to build on the Moon
GZERO World Clips

The race to build on the Moon

More For You

Bond investors continue sell off, Israel looks to LatAm for new friends, Brazilian presidential candidates push for data centers

An electronic board displays that the secondary market yield on newly issued 10-year government bonds has risen to 3.000 percent, in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, Japan.

An electronic board displays that the secondary market yield on newly issued 10-year government bonds has risen to 3.000 percent, in Chuo Ward, Tokyo, Japan, on September 1, 2026.

Taketo Oishi / The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters Connect
Global bond-fire rages as investors fret about inflationInvestors around the world are selling off government bonds amid concerns about rising inflation and unsustainable spending by some large economies. The yield on 10-year bonds issued by Japan, for example, has reached its highest level in 30 years as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi pushes a new [...]

The US stakes its claim on Venezuelan oil fields, Greece inks a massive weapons deal with Israel, Russia comes to Niger’s rescue

Oil workers drilling a well in an oil field, Venezuela.

Oil workers drilling a well in an oil field, Venezuela.

REUTERS/Science Photo Library
US strikes controversial Venezuela oil dealThe US government will take a majority stake in a new company that has the rights to develop 65 million barrels of Venezuelan crude, or about one-fifth of the country’s total proven reserves. The deal aims to secure massive investment in the dilapidated Venezuelan oil industry, boost US energy security, [...]

Iceland votes on restarting EU talks, Ebola vaccinations begin in DRC, US wants a huge stake in Venezuelan oil fields

People hold a sign that reads "No" during a rally of the "No to EU" campaign ahead of a referendum on whether Iceland should resume accession negotiations with the European Union, in Reykjavik, Iceland.

People hold a sign that reads "No" during a rally of the "No to EU" campaign ahead of a referendum on whether Iceland should resume accession negotiations with the European Union, in Reykjavik, Iceland, August 27, 2026.

REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger
Iceland votes on restarting EU accession talks Polls remain tight as Iceland holds a referendum tomorrow on whether to restart EU accession talks. Membership has long been a divisive topic on the island, which gained independence from Denmark in 1944 and remains fiercely protective of its sovereignty. During previous talks, the bloc’s fisheries [...]

Devastation in Nepal and China after flash flood, Tanzania’s political infighting tests its political stability, French presidential candidates face off in first debate

A damaged section of a highway in Nuwakot, central Nepal

A damaged section of a highway in Nuwakot, central Nepal, is seen on August 27, 2026, following an outburst of a glacial lake in Tibet.

Sanjit Pariyar/NurPhoto
Catastrophic flooding in Nepal tests its young, new leaderA massive wall of mud and rock crashed into a river along Nepal’s Himalayan border with Tibet on Wednesday, triggering catastrophic flooding that swept away bridges, destroyed buildings, and swamped roads. Over 300 people were killed, and over 1,000 remain missing – including hundreds of [...]