Despite the shift in political sentiment in Hungary, millions of Fidesz voters remain an important audience with whom Ukraine needs to actively engage, as personal contacts and interpersonal ties are the best defense against Russian manipulation and disinformation.
This was stated by Ukraine’s Ambassador to Hungary, Fedir Shandor, during an online appearance at the expert discussion “Russian Influence Operations During Election Campaigns in EU and Eastern Partnership Countries in 2024–2025: Lessons for Ukraine,” according to a Ukrinform correspondent.
Shandor noted that in the context of Ukraine’s current communication with Hungarian society, the results of the recent parliamentary elections must be taken into account. He recalled that over 3 million Hungarians voted for the “Tisza” party, which, as a percentage of the country’s population, is an “extremely large” figure.
“But I want to mention another figure: 2.2 million voters cast their ballots for the Fidesz party and over 300,000 for the ultra-nationalists of the Mi Hazánk party… What does this tell us? That 2.5 million voters are the people we need to work with, because they haven’t disappeared; for some reason they bought into these narratives—this is Russian disinformation—and for some reason decided to vote based on the messages spread on Facebook, which is the number one social media platform in Hungary,” said the Ukrainian ambassador.
