Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as he claimed victory in the country's elections on Sunday night, per the BBC.
Driving the news: "We have such a victory it can be seen from the moon, but it's sure that it can be seen from Brussels," the far-right leader said in his Sunday night speech, in a nod to his government's long-standing tensions with the European Union, CNN reports.
- "We will remember this victory until the end of our lives because we had to fight against a huge amount of opponents," said the far-right leader, naming political rivals on the Hungarian left, Brussels "bureaucrats," international media "and the Ukrainian president too."
Context: Zelensky has repeatedly criticized Orbán's policies, notably referring to Hungary's government as a "Russian branch in Europe" while urging EU leaders to "stop listening to the excuses of Budapest."
- Orbán's close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin came under scrutiny in the final stretch of Hungary's election campaign, Axios' Zachary Basu reports.
What to watch: The Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) sent a full monitoring mission to Hungary to observe polling — a rare step for the security and rights watchdog to take in an EU member state, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty notes.
Background: The OSCE said in a preliminary report in February that its points about problems from the 2018 elections hadn't been addressed and expressed concerns about "bias in public media and the potential for postal vote abuses," the outlet reports.
Meanwhile, the OSCE said in a preliminary report in February that its points about problems from the 2018 elections hadn't been addressed and expressed concerns about "bias in public media and the potential for postal vote abuses," per Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
What they're saying: Opposition leaders called the election campaign "unfair and impossible circumstances," with state media largely ignoring opposition parties, according to AFP.
By the numbers: Preliminary results show Orbán's Fidesz party won 53.1% of votes, with 98% of ballots counted, electing him to a fourth term, per the BBC.
