Visegrad Group in March 2026: the most important developments in politics
In March 2026, Hungary's veto of a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine was the main political event in the Visegrad countries. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had said on March 4 that Hungary would block every EU decision on Ukraine over what he called an oil blockade by Kyiv. At the March 19 summit in Brussels he blocked the loan, and other EU leaders accused him of blackmail and betrayal. Kaja Kallas said the EU had legal tools to bypass the veto if it found the courage to use them, and Friedrich Merz and Donald Tusk vowed to push the aid through. Russia praised the veto. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico criticized Brussels and predicted the summit would fail.
The Hungarian parliamentary election, set for April, shaped the month. Orbán and his main challenger, Péter Magyar, held rival rallies in Budapest on March 15, and Orbán described the vote as a choice between his leadership and that of Volodymyr Zelensky. On March 23 party leaders from across Europe, including Marine Le Pen, gathered in Budapest in support of Orbán, with a message from Donald Trump, who endorsed him on March 25. In the same week the EU demanded clarification from Hungary over reports that it had informed Russia about confidential EU meetings. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó confirmed he had spoken with Sergey Lavrov and called this standard diplomatic practice, while Magyar called the alleged leaks treason.
Relations between Hungary and Ukraine worsened. On March 6 Orbán said he had received a threat from Zelensky, which the European Commission called unacceptable. Hungary seized cash and gold from Ukrainian bank armored cars and detained employees, and Ukraine advised its citizens against travel to Hungary. Hungary sent a fact-finding mission over the Druzhba pipeline, which Kyiv refused to recognize as an official delegation.
In Poland, President Nawrocki vetoed a law that would let the country draw €43.7 billion in EU defense loans, and Tusk said the government would find a way to implement it. Poland's Supreme Court ruled that same-sex marriages legally performed in other EU states must be recognized.
by WorldBrief & Maksim Micheliov | AI-generated summary
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