At a village pub in Orban’s heartland, Hungary’s vote plays out over pints

WORLD / Politics

At a village pub in Orban’s heartland, Hungary’s vote plays out over pints

Sandor Toth talks to customers in his small pub in Malyinka, a small village in Hungary. The pub has become "the center of town," with its ?strategic location next ?to a soccer field and with a license to sell tobacco. | REUTERS

By Krisztina Than and Krisztina Fenyo
REUTERS

Apr 3, 2026

MALYINKA, Hungary – Sandor Toth has been running his pub in a small village in the hilly northeast of Hungary for 43 years, witnessing the collapse of communism and since 2010 four victories by the lawmaker for Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in his constituency.

Toth, 72, has voted for Fidesz each time.

Since last year his pub has been awarded 3 million forints ($9,000) in grants from Orban’s “pub program” that??allowed him to install new windows and air conditioning. Hundreds of pubs got the free state grants under the government slogan that they are “the soul ?of the ?villages.”