Hungary's new prime minister Péter Magyar has reactivated the ban on imports of Ukrainian agricultural products - meat, grain, eggs, frozen vegetables and other items. The previous ban from Viktor Orbán's era had lapsed because of an administrative blunder - until Magyar reimposed the state of emergency on May 14. Now it's clear: the new administration in Budapest is continuing the same policy, with new legal tools.

Hungary's Agriculture Minister Szabolcs Bóna announced a new law that will provide legal protection for the domestic market and producers. The measures will cover "meat, frozen vegetables and grain." The goal is clear - protection from "unfair competition" from Ukraine, which since 2022 has used the "solidarity corridors" set up by the EU to export around the blockaded Black Sea ports.

Similar policies are already in place in Poland, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria - with variations. All cite "pressure on the domestic market" and "an unacceptable price collapse" for products from their own farmers. That's an economic reality - Ukrainian agricultural products are cheaper because of low labor costs and existing subsidies. But it's also a political reality that every government in these countries has a farming base that votes, while Ukraine is external to that political calculus.

Magyar, who came to Budapest with somewhat softer notes toward Brussels than Orbán, simultaneously made the opposite move - he withdrew Hungary's intention to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC). That's standard dynamics for a new government that wants to send the "we're all a new page" message while quietly continuing every controversial policy that brings votes.

For the Balkans and Macedonia, this matters. Hungary is part of the Visegrád Group and along with Poland has long pushed similar positions on Ukrainian agricultural imports. With that policy, they indirectly form a barrier in EU negotiations on continued support for Ukraine. And at a moment when food prices in the average Balkan market depend more and more on European regulation, political tensions between Budapest and Brussels don't only have their own dimension - they have a price tag at our supermarkets too.