Hungary election: How football has helped Orban keep power
Key takeaways
- Viktor Orban is a football fanatic but has long used the sport as a political tool, both in Hungary and abroad.
- The US vice president addressed a pre-election rally on Tuesday at the MTK Sportpark in Hungary's capital, Budapest.
- "I don't think that is accidental staging," Gyozo Molnar, a professor of sociology of sport and exercise at the University of Worcester, and originally from Hungary, told DW.
Why this matters: an international story with cross-border implications worth tracking.
Viktor Orban is a football fanatic but has long used the sport as a political tool, both in Hungary and abroad. With polls predicting election defeat, he could also lose his chance of hosting the Champions League final.
https://p.dw.com/p/5Bqc NViktor Orban has made himself the key figure in Hungarian football, as well as society Image: Sebastian Räppold/Matthias Koch/picture alliance Advertisement Amid the rhetoric and rabble rousing of JD Vance's promotional tour of Budapest in support of the "fantastic" Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, the significance of one of the venues may have been lost on many.
The US vice president addressed a pre-election rally on Tuesday at the MTK Sportpark in Hungary's capital, Budapest. The venue, opened in 2025, is used by various sporting departments of the MTK Budapest club, whose football team are one of Hungary's most successful, with 23 national titles. MTK's president is Tamas Deutsch, a Member of European Parliament and member of Orban's Fidesz party.