One EU diplomat said Meloni had proven to be a “totally different breed” of politician from Orbán. But another warned she came from the same political family as the Hungarian and shouldn’t be counted out.
“At the last European Council, the only person to have agreed with Orbán was Meloni,” the second EU diplomat said, referring to the Italian leader’s confession to other leaders that she understood Orbán’s position on the Ukraine loan at the March summit. “You can see there is an ideological link between the two of them.”
The Comeback Populist: Slovenia’s Janez Janša
Slovenia’s former multi-term prime minister, a right-wing populist and self-described Trump admirer with a penchant for picking fights with journalists, came in second place by just one seat in last month’s dramatic espionage-marred election. With negotiations ongoing it remains unclear whether Janša or incumbent PM Robert Golob will be able to assemble a governing coalition.
Janša, sometimes dubbed a “mini-Trump,” would add to a growing populist club in the EU if he returns to power. On Ukraine, however, there is a notable difference between Janša and Orbán or even Fico: Despite being allied with the Hungarian on other issues, Janša has championed Ukraine’s EU membership and visited Kyiv in 2022 in the early days of Russia’s full-scale invasion to show support.
The Bulgarian Wild Card: Rumen Radev
Bulgaria’s former president resigned in January to launch a new party and run in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. And he’s on track to win, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, in a potential breakthrough after years of political paralysis in Sofia.
That might be a problem for Ukraine and its European allies. In 2025 Radev said Ukraine is “doomed” in its war against Russia and argued that increasing EU military aid, or “pouring more weapons” into Kyiv, wasn’t the answer. He also blamed European leaders for encouraging Kyiv’s counteroffensive, saying it had led to “hundreds of thousands of victims” in Ukraine.
Radev’s Kremlin sympathies earned him a salty rebuke from Zelenskyy during a televised clash between the two leaders in 2023 at the presidential palace in Sofia. “You would say: Putin, please grab Bulgarian territory?” Zelenskyy demanded. A flustered Radev struggled to answer.