When Ukraine Has Become an Exporter of Democracy

Tymofiy Mylovanov, Ukraine’s former economy minister, now enjoying the perks of a professorship at the University of Pittsburgh, has posted on X saying, “one day Orban will loose power and Hungary will be democratic again.” He also included a photo of the crowds at Budapest Pride. There are plenty of other such statements from Ukrainian officials around, but Mr. Mylovanov’s is fairly representative, or rather symptomatic of their shared mindset, so we will go with that. 

One day Orban will loose power and Hungary will be democratic again pic.twitter.com/j2cZ3KiL0r

— Tymofiy Mylovanov (@Mylovanov) June 28, 2025

We can probably all agree that democracy is where the will of the majority of citizens is respected and turned into policy by elected officials, while provisions are also made to protect the needs of various minorities. We can also assume with a fair amount of certainty that Mr. Mylovanov’s selfless desire to see democracy installed in Hungary the way it was done in 2014, in his own country is tied to the Orbán government’s emphatic rejection of Ukraine’s desire to join the EU and NATO.

Despite all the goodwill surrounding Hungary from its Eastern neighbor, it was coincidentally the only country in Europe to stick its neck out and actually ask its citizens directly whether they want the government to support Ukraine’s EU membership or not. Some 2.3 million of our citizens have participated in the referendum, 95% of them have said “NO.” This result will no doubt be attributed to the fact that opposition-sympathizers have largely stayed away from the referendum and by what Kyiv calls “Viktor Orbán’s anti-Ukrainian propaganda.”

However, looking at the rest of the Visegrad Four countries, we get a very similar picture, even without Orbán. In Slovakia, 58% of those polled were against Ukraine’s EU membership, with only 27% in favor. In Czechia, as many as 61% of those asked are against, which is staggering given the relentless pro-Ukrainian narrative of the Petr Fiala government. Last but not least, in Poland, one of Ukraine’s most fervent military supporters, only 35% would like to see the country joining the EU, with 42% against.

Hence, when one makes self-interest the only criterion of judging the democracy of another country, an approach used by Brussels en masse, one could easily shoot oneself in the foot. When Hungary has offered the most powerful tool of direct democracy to its voters in a referendum, its results have clearly terrified the leaders of other EU Member States. They have learned from Brexit, no doubt – bad things happen when the people are allowed to have their way. In fact, Ukraine’s EU membership chances actually hinge on certain European governments willfully and blatantly ignoring the will of their citizens.

Slovakia’s paper tiger Prime Minister, Robert Fico, for instance, signs almost every resolution that Brussels slides under his nose, despite fiery declarations to the opposite. He knows that a single veto, coming from Hungary, will do the job, so why bother. Czechia’s Brussels-sponsored puppet government equally disregards public sentiment, and in return they reap positive headlines from their woke press. And for their part, the Polish government of Donald Tusk had sunk into authoritarianism to such an extent that they are completely tone-deaf to Polish citizens’ calls not only with regard to Ukraine’s EU membership, but also towards calls for stopping financing the war or taking in more refugees from their Eastern neighbor. In short, if any of these governments had followed basic tenets of democracy by listening to their citizens, Ukraine’s EU membership dreams would go up in flames for the foreseeable future.