Fico and Magyar Set Aside Beneš Decrees Dispute as V4 Leaders Seek United Front Against Brussels

The leaders of the Visegrád Four group — Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic — have signaled a renewed push for unity after years of internal disputes, with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's ally Peter Magyar agreeing to set aside the long-running controversy over the Beneš Decrees in favor of coordinated pressure on the European Union. The apparent rapprochement marks a notable shift for the V4, a regional bloc formed in 1991 to coordinate Central European interests within European structures. In recent years the group has been fractured by diverging foreign policy positions, particularly over the war in Ukraine, with Poland and the Czech Republic strongly supporting Kyiv while Hungary and, to a lesser extent, Slovakia under Fico have taken more ambivalent stances. The Beneš Decrees — post-World War II edicts issued by Czechoslovak President Edvard Beneš that authorized the expulsion of ethnic Hungarians and Germans — have historically been a source of friction between Slovakia and Hungary. Political analysts caution that one successful summit is unlikely to be sufficient to restore the V4 to meaningful cohesion. The group's divisions run deep, and whether the renewed rhetoric of cooperation translates into a sustained and effective bloc capable of influencing EU policy remains an open question. The V4 has historically wielded significant collective leverage in Brussels on issues such as migration and rule-of-law conditionality, but that influence has diminished as internal disagreements have grown.