Hungary declared its support for Georgia’s membership efforts comes shortly after the EU’s decision to halt the accession process following the adoption of the foreign agent law by the Tbilisi parliament.
In response to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the Tusványos festival, Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski of Poland has called on the Hungarian leadership to leave the EU and NATO if they believe these organizations treat them so badly. Meanwhile, US Ambassador David Pressman has also come out to criticize the same speech by PM Orbán.
Minister of Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás stated on Friday that Hungary does not want to blackmail Ukraine over the halted transit of Russian Lukoil oil shipments via Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. However, Gulyás pointed out that if no solution is found in the near future, ‘other steps should be considered’.
In an official statement of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Hungarian government expressed its disagreement with the recent findings of the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice, according to which Israel’s presence in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem is ‘unlawful’, while Israel’s ‘policies and practices’ in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem, including ‘the maintenance and expansion of settlements’, amount to the ‘annexation of large parts of the Occupied Palestinian Territory.’
After a long time, Europe has the opportunity to take its future into its own hands, restore its long-lost prestige, and promote peace in Ukraine. Instead, Brussels has initiated a childish vendetta against Hungary over Viktor Orbán’s peace mission. Missing such opportunities out of hubris and pettiness demonstrates the utter incompetence of the EU leadership.
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.
The level of escalation in the Middle East has risen significantly after Israel struck a Houthi-controlled port in Yemen over the weekend, marking the first such attack since the war between Hamas and Israel broke out last October. The retaliatory strike follows a deadly drone attack by the Yemeni Houthis on Tel Aviv.
Italian antifascist-attacker-turned-MEP Ilaria Salis was quick to criticize Hungary in her very first post on X as a member of the European Parliament, accusing Budapest of not having guaranteed her fundamental rights due to her political beliefs as an antifascist while she was in custody and under house arrest. Zoltán Kovács, Hungarian State Secretary for International Communication and Relations, responded by calling on Salis’ defenders to ‘stop whitewashing a communist terrorist who led a group that almost killed someone on the streets of Budapest in broad daylight.’
‘An important element of Viktor Orbán’s governance is that he knows Hungarian history and has learned from its mistakes. He does not want to repeat the sins committed by the historic Hungarian state during the 20th century. Hungary’s vision has thus not been blinded by the anti-Zionism of woke ideology, and it is able to recognize that Israel is the bastion of democracy and human rights in the Middle East, while successfully holding on to its religious and national traditions.’
As Itamar Eichner phrased in his Ynet News article, ‘Without the opposition from Israel’s friends in the EU, such as Hungary, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Germany, the EU might have already passed sanctions against Israel. Foreign policy decisions in the EU require consensus, which Israel’s allies prevent.’