Jan Mainka: Don’t Believe Western Propaganda on Hungary, Orban Will Win
April 11—Jan Mainka is editor of the German-language weekly Budapester Zeitung. EIR reached him by phone to get an assessment of the political situation in Hungary on the eve of the April 12 national elections. Out of our discussion, a quite different picture emerged than the one offered by Western mainstream media. Mainka’s newspaper is independent, but, as you will see from the interview, he is not “neutral.”
Our interlocutor confirmed what other sources had told EIR, concerning the biased methodology used in reporting opinion polls, according to which the opposition candidate has a significant advantage against incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has supported Russian interests and a path towards peace in Ukraine and who is regarded as President Donald Trump's biggest supporter among increasingly hostile NATO/European leaders. Trump had this week sent Vice President JD Vance to Hungary to campaign with Orban.
According to Mainka, a 55% result for Orbán is a credible forecast. This is based on internal Fidesz party polls, as well as turnouts to election rallies. For instance, on March 15, the national day, two rallies took place in Budapest: one by opposition leader Magyar and one by Orbán. While some 150,000 people joined the Magyar rally, Orbán’s rally had the participation of 180,000 people, and this, despite the fact that Budapest and other large cities are Magyar’s main voter reserve. Magyar can count on left-liberal voters coming from the university and other layers, for instance. Such figures have been produced from data, such as the number of cellphones that are connected to the cell tower. Other interesting data, Mainka pointed out, is the number of followers on Facebook and other social media, where Orbán’s party, Fidesz, has a clear advantage. Last but not least, internal polls, which cannot be published, are not so bad.
Fidesz members and activists are eager to defend what their party has built and will do everything possible, “within the limits of legality,” to prevent that “a foreign puppet should destroy it.” However, they will never commit abuses of power, as is done in Germany against the AfD, Mainka stressed. “We don’t have burnt cars, people beaten up or threatened, destruction of party offices.” There is no violence in Hungary, at least not from Fidesz. You cannot say the same about the opposition though: in downtown Budapest, all Fidesz posters are systematically torn down, while opposition posters are not. There is an “aggressiveness, a propensity for violence” among Tisza supporters, which, however, is backfiring: The population sees this and does not like it. “The Hungarian people are peaceful. It is not like the French, who like to pick a fight, including with police….”
A victory by Orbán, however, means that Hungary’s confrontation with the EU will continue. “Brussels wants to strangle us—as long as they can strangle us,” said Mainka. “Orbán will stay true to himself, pursuing a path of peace—just as he has done since February 2022, always talking about peace, peace, peace, negotiating, negotiating—enough already, those poor souls who are being killed every day; that will continue. As for migration, Hungary’s borders will remain closed to illegal migration, and this multilateral foreign policy will also continue, meaning he’ll aim for good cooperation with all the world’s powers, but also with smaller countries—we have very good relations with Russia, China, but also with the Arab world and so on—and all that will continue to be cultivated, and if the EU keeps isolating itself further, we’ll maintain an open foreign policy here.”
EIR asked Jan Mainka about the current state of affairs with Ukraine and the Druzhba pipeline. Hungary used to get Russian oil through the pipeline and now no longer. Kyiv claims that the pipeline, which they insist was damaged by Russia, cannot be quickly repaired.
“We’re still being taken for a ride there, right?” Mainka answered. "By the EU, Brussels, and Kyiv. The EU supposedly wanted to conduct some kind of inspection there, and Kyiv said, ‘Nyet, no way, you can’t look.’ Now probably everything’s been prearranged. Brussels acts like they’re interested, and Kyiv acts like they’re giving it the cold shoulder, but in any case, it’s a delaying tactic. Brussels, together with their puppet Kyiv, simply don’t want it opened; they want to keep inflicting massive harm on Hungary, putting Hungary under pressure, destroy Hungary until it’s ripe for the picking, and that’s the whole calculation. But let’s see—if Orbán stands his ground, as he claims he will, then that whole ‘ripe for the picking’ thing won’t have worked out.
“Whether they’ll go even further and actually destroy an EU member economically, whether they’ll go as far as the EU does with its sick ideological projects, or whether a bit of reason will prevail—like the Belgian Prime Minister and everyone else is in favor of it, and even the Americans are applying pressure: ‘Stop with these damn stupid sanctions, we need every drop of oil right now, otherwise we’re going to crash, our economy is going to crash.’”
But the Americans didn’t help in getting the pipeline reopened?
“No, not directly, no, they’re just good at prompting, but when the entire EU establishment opposes it—including the peace policy—the Americans can talk all they want. So when Trump was still in his ‘peace phase,’ nothing worked out, because the entire massive EU establishment is for war, for destruction, for this sick ideology, and for open borders and all that crap. I’m curious now to see what the EU will do when they realize the consequences of the Gulf crisis—because 20 to sometimes 40%, of imported gas comes from Qatar; that means nothing right now, not anymore; they have only one alternative; they’ll have to come to terms with Russia; there’s no other way. The only question is how quickly they’ll figure it out themselves—whether they’ll figure it out before the big crash, or, as is to be expected from those stupid politicians, whether it has to blow up first and then they rush to the phone—that’s completely childish. What do we need politicians for if they always wait until things blow up before taking action? Then any third-grader could run the government. They should take a proactive look beforehand to see where things are headed, and then, together with the advisors and all those highly paid people, they should come up with strategies in advance and then implement them—not wait until the damage is done—but that’s just how it is right now.”