Something’s brewing in Central.
Here in the so-called Visegrad Four - Hungary, Czechia, Slovakia, Poland, the shape of your average parliament no longer mirrors that of the wider Europe.
In Hungary, Viktor Orban’s challenger in the 2026 elections will be a centre-right former Fidesz cadre.
In Poland, Donald Tusk ran from the centre-right to narrowly beat the conservative right of Law and Justice.
In Slovakia, the heterodox anti-EU populist Robert Fico remains the dominant figure.
And in Czechia, Andrej Babis has just been returned to power, after four years in the wilderness.
Babis’ headlines in the West often describe him as a maverick billionaire of the populist right — a Trump for Prague.
Babis now needs an additional twenty one seats to find a workable coalition.
But the bigger picture is already clear: between Fico, Orban and Babis, Central Europe is now the beating heart of nationalist-populism - and an effective blocking vote against EU centralism.
As Babis comes back, how should we interpret Central Europe’s nationalist turn?
Gavin Haynes is joined by two Danube researchers who’ve been studying the issue, in the context of the Czech elections. Visiting Fellow Hugo Martin, and Senior Fellow Peter Sztitas.
