Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban won his country’s election on Sunday as the EU braces for fresh clashes with the perceived autocratic. Orban appeared to rejoice at the expense of the EU, saying: “We have won a victory so big it can be seen from the moon, but certainly from Brussels. “National Christian Democratic policy has won, and we should tell Brussels that this is not the past, but the future.” Orban and European leaders have clashed over a number of issues in recent years.

Hungary is an EU member state, but the country’s government has consistently implemented anti-democratic and discriminatory policies in opposition to calls from Brussels for equality in the country.

This, combined with Orban’s repeated anti-EU rhetoric, has left Hungarian opposition figures fearful that the country may leave the bloc.

Green left politician Timea Szabo of the Dialogue for Hungary party told DW in August 2021: “Orban’s campaign for our home country’s exit from the EU has begun.

“Now those who vote for Orban are voting for the end of our EU membership.”

Ms Szabo’s comments came in response to an editorial in the Magyar Nemzet newspaper, an unofficial government outlet that regularly backs Orban’s worldview.

He said, “It’s time to talk about Huxit.

“The time has come, now in July 2021, to seriously consider the possibility of our withdrawal from a union of states with a thousand bleeding wounds, showing imperial symptoms and treating the countries of Eastern and Central Europe with incredible arrogance. .”

“Our paths have diverged as the West consciously […] breaks with morality and Christian values.

“Instead, they aim to build a faceless, cosmopolitan global society based on unbridled self-pleasure and the self-destruction of the individual.

“[By contrast,] We Hungarians, Poles and the peoples of Central and Eastern Europe hold on to our cultural and religious foundations.”

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In his victory speech on Sunday, Orban slammed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, referring to him and Brussels bureaucrats as the “opponents” he had to defeat during the campaign.

Russian President Vladimir Putin even congratulated Orban, expressing his confidence that the two countries could develop new relations “despite the difficult international situation”.

The European Commission appears to be planning moves to sanction Hungary for its failure to comply with the bloc’s rule of law standards.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced that the outfit would soon trigger a powerful new mechanism to cut funding for Hungary.

She said: “We have carefully assessed the outcome of these questions.

“Our conclusion is that we need to move on [to] the next step.”