Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday said it was a mistake for the European Commission to be pushing for EU leaders to put Ukraine’s European Union accession on the agenda, opining that the bloc should first sign a five to ten-year strategic partnership agreement with the country.
Earlier this year, the EU reached a preliminary agreement with Hungary regarding judicial reforms, outlining specific milestones that the Orbán government must fulfil to access funds.
Within just a few days, the Commission has gone from announcing a complete suspension of aid to the Palestinians to tripling humanitarian aid to them. No wonder a special summit was soon needed to coordinate EU communication on the conflict in Israel.
‘I am not disappointed by the attitude of Poland and Hungary, I am never disappointed by those who defend their national interests,’ the Italian premier declared following the meeting of the European Council, adding that ‘there is an excellent relationship with Poland and Hungary’.
The mediation of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who supported the pact for the temporary relief of Italian refugee camps, and negotiations with the major member states failed to convince Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who eventually prevented the centre-right governments from presenting the migrant quota proposal as a huge step forward in the European election campaign.
The Hungarian Prime Minister was put under scrutiny for not applauding the Ukrainian President—however, he was not the only one, as some Western journalists and politicians have claimed.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal recently stated that the country would like to join the EU in a two-year timetable. However, most member states think that this timeline for Kyiv’s bid is unrealistic.
Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested a one-and-a-half-day truce in the Russo-Ukrainian war, but the Ukrainian leadership and their Western allies do not want any part of it, considering Moscow’s proposal a sham. To what extent the guns on the front will die down until Saturday evening is highly questionable.
In the last decade, both Poland and Hungary have been actively formulating European policy; however, this duo is not strong enough without the active support of the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It is also a warning sign that the loudest criticisms of Hungary and Poland can often be heard from inside the V4.
‘For Hungary, Clement’s tenure offered little tangible support during one of its darkest eras, while his broader legacy includes the catastrophic Sack of Rome, the expansion of Protestantism, and the Anglican schism. Today, he is remembered not as a leader who rose to the challenges of his time, but as a figure whose reign epitomized the turbulence and contradictions of the Renaissance papacy.’
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.
