The End of Hungary’s “Opening to the East”. For years, Viktor Orbán’s government sold the East as Hungary’s economic future and the West as a fading dependency. But the trade numbers never supported the fantasy and after Tisza’s landslide victory, the political system that sustained it may be starting to collapse as well.
The port project in Trieste is being overseen not by the transport or economic ministry, but by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (KKM). Since then, the state-run structure has produced three loss-making companies, operating costs worth billions of forints, and an investment project that keeps slipping year after year.
Presented as an instrument of soft power, Hungary’s teqball diplomacy raises deeper questions about transparency, political priorities, and the use of public money in foreign policy.
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