Victory of Putin ally Orbán in Hungary may trigger freeze on EU funding

Viktor Orbán won Hungary’s general election decisively but observers say there was an ‘absence of a level playing field’. Photograph: Attila Kisbenedek/AFP/Getty Images

Vladimir Putin has congratulated Hungary’s strongman leader, Viktor Orbán, on his decisive election victory, amid signs that European Union authorities will launch a sanctions process against Budapest that is intended to safeguard EU funds at risk from democratic-backsliding member states.

Two members of the European parliament said they expected the European Commission to launch the “rule of law conditionality mechanism” against Hungary, a legal process that could ultimately switch off billions in EU payments to Budapest.