HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER Viktor Orbán heads to the European Parliament later today as he remains at loggerheads with EU leaders.

Orbán is to tell MEPs later this morning about his Government’s priorities as it holds the Chair of the Council of the EU, which sets the agenda of meetings between European ministers.

Earlier this year the European leadership, including Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, were left outraged after, shortly after his Government took its seat as chair of the council, Obrán made a surprise visit to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

At the time, new Fine Gael MEPs requested that Hungary be blocked from voting within the EU over the behaviour. The Hungarian leader also visited the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

The ‘peace trips’ were denounced by European leadership as they claimed he had no right to do so under the treaties outlining the role of the Council presidency. Von der Leyen told her diplomats not to attend meetings in Budapest as a result.

Now, half way through its mandate, Orbán will deliver the agenda of his Government’s presidency to MEPs at the European Parliament in Strasbourg later today. 

As normal, the spotlight-loving leader will kick things off with a press conference and can be expected to use the platform to rail at all things Brussels – while liberal lawmakers picket the event in protest.

Orbán set the tone with a combative social media post on Sunday, pointing at hard-right electoral gains from Italy to the Netherlands and Austria – and the influence of a Hungarian-led new group in the EU parliament, the Patriots for Europe.

“We should not withdraw from Brussels, but occupy it,” he wrote. “We will take back Brussels from the bureaucrats and return it to the European people!”

French lawmaker Valerie Hayer, and leader of the centrist Renew group, plans to protest outside Orban’s press conference alongside her party colleagues, including Fianna Fáil MEPs.

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She called his freelance diplomacy conducted under the EU presidency banner “unacceptable” and said it played into the hands of “autocratic states”.

“Orbán is playing arsonist with the very idea of Europe,” she charged. “He wants to burn down democratic, liberal and tolerant Europe.”

Elsewhere in the EU, the situation does not improve for Orbán as last week the Commission began legal action against Hungary over its so-called ‘foreign influence’ laws that allegedly breach EU rules.

Before Orbán’s press conference, Dutch Green Party MEP and lead negotiator for the Rule of Law in the European Parliament Tineke Strik will a separate news briefing, outlining how no progress has been made to enhance the rule of law in Budapest under Orbán’s leadership in the last year.

Contains reporting from © AFP 2024