During an 11 August press conference at the White House, Donald Trump said he had sought advice from Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on whether Ukraine can defeat Russia, calling the insight ‘very interesting’. Trump is set to meet Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday to discuss a potential peace framework for the war in Ukraine.
In the latest sign of deteriorating relations, Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has summoned Hungarian Ambassador to Kyiv Antal Hejzer in response to an advertising campaign portraying Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar as the ‘Hungarian Zelenskyy’. Ukraine’s EU accession is increasingly becoming a central topic in the electoral campaign for Hungary’s 2026 parliamentary election.
Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna of Estonia has called Hungary ‘a very weak country’ that is ‘part of Putin’s team’ in inflammatory statements made during a recent interview with the German paper Rheinische Post. He also reiterated his wish to strip Hungary of its voting rights in the Council of the EU.
Poles increasingly view support for Ukraine as a burden on the nation, with public sentiment shifting rapidly in a negative direction. This is clearly reflected in the rising popularity of Sławomir Mentzen, the presidential candidate of the right-wing Konfederacja, who is firmly opposed to the war and to unconditional support for Kyiv.
Poland took over the presidency of the EU from Hungary on 1 January. The ceremony launching the presidency, however, was conducted without the Hungarian ambassador to Poland, as the Polish Foreign Ministry declared he would not be welcome at the event. Political Director for the Prime Minister of Hungary Balázs Orbán commented on the incident and its context in an interview with wPolityce.
Recently Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was awarded the Supreme Order of the Turkic World. As he highlighted in his speech, the relationship between Hungary and the Turkic nations is not a thing of the past ‘but a living relationship’. Budapest’s trade with Turkic countries having exceeded 5 billion USD testifies to that.
The atrium of the Justus Lipsius building in Brussels, Belgium, the old headquarters of the Council, is hosting an exhibition of great Hungarian inventions in honour of the Hungarian presidency. The items on display include Ányos Jedlik’s dynamo, Dávid Schwarz’s airship, and, of course, Ernő Rubik’s Rubik’s Cube.
‘2023 was not a good year for national and ethnic minorities, and 2024 is unlikely to be either. While there were numerous advances during the 1990s, we have been recently witnessing a clear regression.’
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks with his Romanian counterpart Marcel Ciolacu on Friday, a day before Orbán’s speech at Tusványos. The discussions focused on bilateral relations between the two countries and Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area.
Balázs Orbán emphasized at a party political roundtable discussion on Thursday at the 33rd Bálványos Summer Open University and Student Camp that peace advocates will eventually become the majority in Europe, stating that ‘time is on their side’.