Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio on Friday that he had received the re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as Türkiye’s president with “great relief”. He said he had “not only kept fingers crossed but prayed a lot” for his election victory. “It would have been tragedy had he not won,” he said, insisting that if Erdoğan’s opponent had won, “one, two, or three million refugees … would have appeared at the Hungarian border before the end of this summer.” Orbán also said Hungary received its Russian gas supplies through Türkiye, and that country having a “pro-American leader or one supported by George Soros” would make it “strongly doubtful if the gas could reach Hungary or Serbia”. Erdoğan’s losing the election would have “given Türkiye a pro-war president”, the prime minister said, adding that “the ramifications would be unforeseeable”. Erdoğan has a chance to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, as he earlier mediated over Ukraine’s grain exports, Orbán said.
According to the prime minister, Hungary “must always watch Berlin, Moscow, and Ankara … Hungary is in that triangle and it is in that triangle where the life of Hungarians must be managed.” He said “constellations are not equally good in those three relations but all three are stable, balanced, and could bring benefits to Hungary”. He added, however, that currently relations with Germany were “the most critical”.