All three of the leaders in Poland, Slovakia and Hungary are under pressure and looking at ways to shore up their hold on power.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk is struggling following the victory of right wing populist Karol Nawrocki, a Tusk opponent who was voted in as president at the weekend backed by the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, and threatens to stymie Tusk’s already troubled reform programme.

To reaffirm his mandate, Tusk called for a vote of confidence in his government on June 11, a vote that he is likely to win — despite harsh criticism of his leadership now coming from within the ruling coalition.

As bne IntelliNews reported, Nawrocki’s win has shaken Tusk’s government to the core. Tusk’s coalition had stood on the verge of being able to speed up its reformist agenda, yet is now facing collapse after Nawrocki squeaked in to win, partly thanks to the backing of the Trump administration’s elite who turned up in Warsaw days before the vote for a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) convention to endorse him.

With the next Polish general elections slated for October 2027 at the latest, Nawrocki is expected to block most of Tusk’s reform agenda and the ruling coalition does not have the votes to override a presidential veto. By bringing the legislative work to a grinding halt, Nawrocki is hoping to fuel already growing frustrations amongst the population at the slow pace of change.

Tusk remains defiant, however, and said the government would continue and even up the ante by flooding the incumbent President Andrzej Duda — and, from August, Nawrocki — with new legislation or find workarounds if neither cooperates.

Again, critics have said that it is the strategy Tusk should have pursued from day one in the office 18 months ago. Not doing so might well have cost Trzaskowski the presidency on June 1, the criticism goes.

In Slovakia there are signs that Prime Minister Robert Fico is also planning to hold early parliamentary elections in early 2026, aimed at consolidating his electoral support, while simultaneously creating maximum problems for the opposition.

As of June, internal disputes threaten to tear Fico’s Slovak parliamentary coalition apart. Already it is barely staying afloat, and has even lost several MPs, though Fico was able to restore a fragile majority with a cabinet reshuffle in March.

Fico’s coalition, formed after the September 2023 general election, includes his Direction – Social Democracy (Smer-SD) party, the Slovak National Party (SNS) and Voice – Social Democracy (Hlas-SD). Hlas, founded by former prime minister and current president Peter Pellegrini, has been plagued by internal disputes as current chairman Matus Sutaj Estok steered Hlas more into national conservative waters. 

The Fico government intends to appeal to pro-Russian and EU-sceptical voters to bolster its support as part of a swing to the right which is sweeping all of Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is unlikely to call snap elections as the next general election is scheduled for April 2026 but while his Fidesz party remains the most popular, society in Hungary has become more polarised by tensions with Brussels, the war in Ukraine and things like the growing cost-of-living pressure everyone in Europe is feeling.

As of early June 2025, Fidesz continues to lead in opinion polls, though with signs of some erosion in support compared to previous years. According to recent national polling data published by Median and Závecz Research, Fidesz enjoyed support ranging between 40% and 45% among decided voters. That is lower than the 54% share of the vote Fidesz secured in the 2022 general election but still well ahead of any opposition party.

Like the Polish president and Slovak prime minister, Orban is also stoking an “enemy at the gate” argument, running a vigorous anti-Ukraine campaign. This is an attempt to stop the start of Ukraine’s EU accession on the grounds that Europe can’t afford to take in another new large member and this runs counter to Hungary’s natural interests. At the same time Orban is lobbying for an end to sanctions on Russia, and especially on energy exports to Europe, of which Hungary is one of the main beneficiaries. And Orban has also aligned himself with Trump and made use of CPAC’s support by attending their convention in the US last year.

Public confidence in Orbán’s leadership remains relatively strong among his core constituency, particularly on issues related to national sovereignty, migration, and economic stability. However, rising inflation, tensions with the European Union over rule-of-law concerns, and growing dissatisfaction among younger urban voters are contributing to a gradual decline in Fidesz's overall popularity. But no credible challenger has yet emerged with a realistic chance of unseating him in the 2026 general election.