Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary is among the featured speakers at the annual Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp, better known by its colloquial name Tusványos, as per tradition. The event is taking place from 23–28 July in Tusnádfürdő (Băile Tușnad), Transylvania, Romania.
Hungary and Slovakia are taking joint action against Ukraine over its halting of Russian oil shipments to the two EU member states. This move seriously threatens the long-term energy security of both countries, and is considered a violation of the EU–Ukraine Association Agreement by Budapest and Bratislava.
As has been revealed many times, the goal of both the three-party coalition and the new president is to pursue a sovereigntist policy within the Euro-Atlantic region. Hungary has been doing the same thing for over a decade. For this reason, it is likely that in the near future, the two nations will be able to support each other in exerting their influence in the EU and NATO. Hopefully, the beneficiaries of such international cooperation will also include the ethnic Hungarians living in Slovakia.
New sanctions by the Ukrainian government have forced oil transports from the Russian oil procedure Lukoil to be stopped to Hungary and Slovakia. However, Hungary is still receiving gas shipments from Russia uninterrupted through the TurkStream pipeline.
After some details had been circulating in the press for days, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán decided to release his ten-point proposal and assessment he had sent to the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, following his peace mission. The document is the most detailed plan for achieving peace in Ukraine that has ever been made public since the war broke out in February 2022.
Tamás Sulyok stated that several key areas aimed at strengthening the strategic partnership between the two countries were reviewed during the Thursday meeting. He added that in light of Hungary holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union, he requested Peter Pellegrini’s support to help Hungary, as an honest mediator.
The majority of Hungarians agree with Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the Hungarian government in not supporting Ursula von der Leyen’s second term as President of the European Commission. The vote in the European Parliament will take place on Thursday, 18 July, but it is far from certain that the current president will secure the 361 votes needed for re-election.
The left-wing, pro-war majority in the European Parliament refused to vote in favour of a proposal by Patriots for Europe (PfE) to condemn the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump. ‘Their intolerance forms the basis for politically motivated violence and threatens our democratic institutions,’ PfE First Vice-Chairman Kinga Gál pointed out after the vote.
All indications suggest that Brussels simply cannot get over Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s peace mission. In the latest development, 63 MEPs have written an open letter to EU leaders, urging them to strip Hungary of its voting rights in response to the prime minister’s ‘rogue’ diplomacy. Additionally, the European Commission has instructed its commissioners to skip informal ministerial meetings organized by the Hungarian EU presidency.
‘If Europe wants peace and wants to have a decisive say in the settlement of the war and the end of the bloodshed, then a change of direction must be worked out and implemented now,’ Balázs Orbán said in an interview with Magyar Nemzet. The political director of the Hungarian Prime Minister discussed Viktor Orbán’s recent peace mission and also commented on the attempted assassination of former US President Donald Trump.