EU’s Michel in Budapest to tame Orbán ahead of EU summit

The President of the European Council Charles Michel met Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in Budapest on Monday (27 November) in a bid to ease rising tensions, with the increasingly belligerent Hungarian leader threatening to block key decisions on Ukraine.

The talks, which Orbán described as “useful” without elaborating further, lasted “over 2 hours” an EU official said.

Orbán — the only EU leader who has maintained close ties to the Kremlin — is threatening to use his veto at an EU summit in December to block aid to his war-torn neighbour and stop Ukraine’s bid to join the bloc.

Michel and Orbán had “substantial discussions” on the Hungarian Prime Minister’s letter last week calling for an “urgent” rethink of the bloc’s strategy on Ukraine, the official added.

Budapest is at loggerheads with Brussels on a whole array of issues, ranging from migration, judicial reform and LGBTQ rights to Ukraine.

Orbán’s latest salvo is an aggressive eurosceptic advertising campaign featuring posters targeting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

‘Symbolic battles’

While some analysts describe Orbán’s Ukraine move as blackmail to unlock billions of euros in frozen EU funds, others argue that he is trying to mobilise voters against “Brussels bureaucrats” ahead of EU Parliament elections in June — a tactic he has used before other polls.

Last week Brussels authorised a €900-million advance to Hungary from its Covid pandemic recovery fund.

But the bulk of the money that Budapest was due to get has been suspended until it meets several rule-of-law conditions which the EU says it has been flouting.

Brussels has also frozen 22 billion euros in separate cohesion funds.

Orbán told his supporters earlier this month that Hungary was resisting EU policies “with all its might”, claiming they would lead Europe “to its ruin”.

“As the election campaign approaches, the government wants to showcase issues it intends to change in Brussels,” political scientist Daniel Deak of the pro-Orbán 21st Century Institute told AFP.

But Bulcsu Hunyadi, of the Political Capital think-tank, said Orbán needs these “symbolic battles against external enemies” to “keep his base constantly mobilised”.

In a similar vein, the nationalist has also recently toughened his stance against the LGBTQ community under pressure from the far-right Our Homeland party.

Distraction

Ahead of the last European elections in 2019, Orbán launched a similar campaign against von der Leyen’s predecessor Jean-Claude Juncker.

He has continually portrayed EU leaders as puppets of Jewish billionaire George Soros — and now his son Alex — a bête-noire of Orbán’s due to their support of human rights NGOs.

“This is an old tactic aimed at creating a vague and imaginary threat to distract voters from real issues, such as the quality of public education or the healthcare system,” a spokeswoman for Soros’ Open Society Foundations told AFP.

Von der Leyen, meanwhile, is “completely unfazed” by the posters targeting her in Hungary, according to the European Commission.

“We have learned to live with Orbán’s barking” his “howls into the microphone” before changing his attitude in the EU council chamber, said a European diplomat.

“The challenge is to reach out and not further escalate at a very critical time of negotiations on issues that require unanimity,” the diplomat added.

But the EU is making a mistake by not being tough with Orbán, Hunyadi said.

“Orbán is an excellent tactician, who has no choice but to bend to EU rules for the time being, because he is rather isolated, while playing a dangerous game,” he claimed.

The “illiberal democracy” he claims to have built in Hungary is incompatible with the bloc’s values, Hunyadi argued, saying Orbán is presenting himself as an example for other far-right leaders.

On 1 July 2024 it will be Hungary’s turn to take over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.

(Edited by Georgi Gotev)

Read more with EURACTIV