Tensions between Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán and Brussels are likely to continue rising after he took helf of the presidency of the European Union.
Viktor Orbán continues to pressure and criticise Brussels. Orbán during his six-month Hungarian presidency will continue to block key issues, as he did with EU aid to Ukraine, while “loosening restrictions” on rule of law issues on which he has received censure from Brussels to unblock blocked EU funds, according to his biographer, veteran Hungarian journalist Paul Lendvai.
Besides, in contrast to his European partners, Orbán openly supports former US President Donald Trump, and Budapest has pledged to “make Europe great again” during his presidency. He remains also quite aligned with Chinese President Xi Jinping and the Kremlin, and constantly faces criticism from his European counterparts, AFP said.
Orbán has an extremely important political history for European society. The 26-year-old Viktor Orbán, then a law student, gave a fiery speech in 1989 demanding democracy and the return of Soviet troops home. Although today his party is seen more as a far-right party, with Orbán criticising the “decline of the West” in the face of an influx of migrants and the gender lobby, his party was seen very differently then. But then the liberal Alliance of Young Democrats (Fidesz) soon came to symbolise Hungary’s desire to escape the clutches of totalitarianism and embrace Western values.
Orbán became prime minister at the age of 35 in 1998, but suffered a surprise defeat by the Socialists four years later. In 2010, he returned to power and began to rebuild the Hungarian state and its institutions, adopting a new constitution promoting his “illiberal” version of democracy. After changing the electoral rules in favour of Fidesz, he won the elections in 2014, 2018 and 2022, winning two-thirds of the vote each time, signalling Orbán’s long-term and enduring support.
Historian Stefano Bottoni of Florence University says Orbán has for the past 14 years supported Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s position that the West is in turmoil. However, Orbán faces criticism by Western countries for his views, accusing NATO and the EU of provoking a new “world war” and pushing conflict with Russia, where Hungary is much closer than anyone else.
