Orbán congratulates Georgia on not ‘becoming a second Ukraine’

TBILISI — Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán on Tuesday backed Georgia’s ruling party after its disputed election victory, during an inflammatory speech on a hasty visit to Tbilisi.

After opposition allegations that the vote was rigged and critical reports from international observers overshadowed the Russian-leaning Georgian Dream’s win, Orbán arrived to congratulate the party for not letting Georgia become “a second Ukraine.”

“We know what war means, we know how important peace is,” said Orbán. “Hungary is a peace-loving country in Europe, and we greatly value your efforts, as you are on the side of peace too,” he continued. “Nobody wants their own country to be destroyed and involved in war. Therefore, we understand the Georgian people’s decision to choose in favor of freedom.”

He added: “I also want to congratulate the Georgian government on that while enforcing pro-European politics, you didn’t allow becoming a second Ukraine. We greatly value the PM’s devotion to this idea, and I’m confident Georgia will be well-suited to join the EU by the end of this decade.”

Orbán was echoing Georgian Dream’s preelection narrative that Western countries wanted to drag Georgia into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. The right-wing Hungarian leader has positioned himself as a European ally to Putin, meeting the Kremlin chief in Moscow this summer and slow-walking EU sanctions against Russia and military aid for Ukraine.

The Georgian ruling party had positioned itself as a guarantor of peace, warning that opposition parties were the puppets of a so-called global war party.

Saturday’s vote in Georgia — widely regarded as an “existential” election, decisive in determining whether the country’s foreign policy tilts toward the EU or Russia — was marred by violence. International observer missions including the OSCE’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights have expressed concerns over vote-buying.

Iulian Bulai, head of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe delegation, expressed concerns about the electoral conditions “given the cases of vote-buying, the widespread climate of pressure, and party-organized intimidation before and during the elections.”

But Orbán said he had reviewed Hungarian observers’ reports, which were “positive in all aspects.”

“[The report] described free and fair elections, and I would like to congratulate the Georgian PM on this,” Orbán said.

“Elections were free and fair, but dispute will continue in Europe. You should take it seriously, because it happens. … When conservative parties win, such disputes always follow. Such is European politics — if liberals win, they say it’s democratic, but if conservatives win, it’s not,” he added.

Despite his statements, the U.S. and some EU member countries have called for a thorough investigation into alleged violations at the polls.

Orbán’s assessment of the elections as free and fair comes at a turbulent time for Georgian Dream, which is desperately seeking global recognition of the election results.

So far, only a few leaders have congratulated Georgian Dream. Besides the Hungarian prime minister, the list includes the heads of Georgia’s immediate neighbors: Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

Thousands of protesters took to the streets peacefully Monday after Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili — an opponent of the ruling party who has described the Georgian Dream victory as “a Russian special operation” — called on them to defend their votes.