Putin’s friendship has hampered Europe’s right. Not Hungary’s Orbán.

For many right-wing European leaders who have wooed Russian President Vladimir Putin, the war in Ukraine has been a blow to their popularity.

Not so for Viktor Orbán.

The Hungarian prime minister is facing his toughest election yet on April 3, against a united opposition led by a Christian conservative. Before the invasion, the public fretted about COVID-19, high inflation, migration, the defense of traditional family values versus greater LGBTQ rights, and how Budapest’s conflicts with Brussels over rule of law, corruption, and media freedoms might play out. It seemed like a formula for Mr. Orbán’s ouster.

But the conflict in Ukraine has pushed traditional hot-button issues into the background – and looks likely, experts say, to boost Europe’s self-styled “illiberal” strongman’s chances at the ballot box.

The latest polls suggest Mr. Orban’s Fidesz party could win by a narrow margin. The public’s logic seems to be that Mr. Orbán puts