The Poles and the Czechs no longer want Orban. Will the Visegrad Group be called the Baltic Group?

By Constantin Radut
Although the victory of the Fidesz party, of Prime Minister Orban Viktor, in the Hungarian parliamentary elections was predictable, (see this from the Moon, as the long-lived PM of Hungary said), Warsaw, Prague, and Bratislava, members, along with Budapest, of the Visegrad-V4 group , they did not think that the walls of the club they belonged to should be broken.
Now, less than a month after Orban’s victory in Hungary, both Warsaw and Prague are leading a real crusade to transform the V4 into a new formula that excludes Budapest. Or to subdue Budapest. Make her docile. To listen to the interests of Poland.
Political leaders in Poland and Czechia have openly expressed their opinion that a regional organization together with Orban Viktor is no longer in their interest. The main blame the two states place on Orban Viktor is his pro-Russia stance and privileged relations with Vladimir Putin. Although Hungarian-Russian relations have always been close, based on very close economic cooperation, now the equation of power in the region seems to have changed.
Poland already sees great economic and military strength, and its historical hatred of Russia makes it encircle as much power as possible from the east with an anti-Russian coalition.
The closest and easiest to handle are the three Baltic states: Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia.
The campaign to marginalize Orban Viktor and Budapest has been in public for more than three weeks.
A few days ago, the Czech newspaper Lidove Noviny wrote that after Viktor Orban’s election victory in Hungary, there were calls for an end to cooperation in the Visegrad Group.
The newspaper points out that Czech politicians in the center-right government camp are beginning to consider a new direction in foreign policy. Cooperation with the three Baltic states is at the forefront: Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
The head of the deputy foreign affairs committee, Marek Żeniszek, was quoted as saying that “for the time being, cooperation in V4 does not make sense”, and cooperation with Poland, Slovakia and the Baltic states is much more beneficial. Markrta Pekarova Adamova, President of the Chamber of Deputies of the Parliament, did not support leaving V4, but suggested a limited intensity of cooperation and a possible temporary suspension of membership.
However, Prime Minister Petr Fiali’s chief adviser, Tomasz Pojar, believes that the operation of V4 is in the Czech interest and that the results of the individual elections should not change anything, as has been the case for the last 30 years. “V4 makes sense, but let’s be realistic – let’s not glorify it or condemn it. After all, it’s always been the case that the Czechia had to form coalitions on a much larger basis,” he added.
This has always been the Czechia compromise position throughout modern history. The position of a small state, which hid in the shadow of larger states.
In Poland, Radosław Fogiel, the deputy spokesman for the PiS (ruling party), is more subtle but fierce. He told the Warsaw press that Poland had “given Hungary a certain margin of understanding” before and during the election, but the attitude of Hungary and its Prime Minister Viktor Orban towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is pushing Warsaw into a tough stance compared to Budapest: either with the Russians or with the Poles (and the Visegrad Group).
Poland, stimulated by the US, wants to be at the head of an anti-Russian coalition so that the big “bear” from the east is no longer so strong in Warsaw’s geostrategic projects to become the European flag bearer of the fight against Poland, stimulated by the US, wants to be at the head of an anti-Russian coalition so that the big “bear” from the east is no longer so strong in Warsaw’s geostrategic projects to become the European flag bearer of the fight against the Russian Federation
For this, the current government in Warsaw is determined to step on any corpse or opposition to its ambitions.
The future Polish project to replace V4 is to attract the three Baltic states, but also Sweden Finland into an anti-Russian organization.