The strong man from Budapest lasted two hours without losing his splendor. On the program: 20 minutes of presentations of the objectives of the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union (started on July 1, it runs until December 31) and 1 hour 45 minutes of questions and answers with the press.
Viktor Orban was hardly destabilized by the fact of having to pass, to reach the room, under the signs brandished by a dozen MEPs from the Green group. These had hijacked the Trumpist slogan “Stop the steal”to transform it into an injunction to Mr. Orban to stop “to steal European money”in reference to accusations against the Hungarian regime of appropriating European funds. Also note, at the start of the intervention, the irruption of Marton Gyekiczki, member of the Hungarian Democratic Coalition, a young opponent almost immediately tackled to the ground and evacuated by the bodyguards. Nothing to move Viktor Orban, who simply clarified that “Hungarian was a language fond of very harsh words”. “When you tell someone they’re an asshole, that just means you don’t agree with them.” Incident clos.
On the Hungarian presidency which he will present on Wednesday morning in front of a hemicycle which awaits him firmly, Viktor Orban played it alarmist. “In 2011, our last presidency took place at the end of the financial crisis when we had to manage Fukushima but the situation is much more serious today”.
“Ukraine will lose”
In question, the war in Ukraine, on European territory, the conflicts in the Middle East and Africa “of which we suffer the consequences” and his favorite subject, immigration. On the war in Ukraine, Viktor Orban’s position is known: “The European Union’s strategy is not appropriate”. It is all the more necessary to communicate with Russia as “Ukraine will lose”he assures. Qualified as “Trojan horse” of Russian President Vladimir Putin, he knows that he “is a minority in Europe” but consider that “this is not why he must abandon his point of view”.
Viktor Orban gets a slap on the wrist from (almost) all Member States, after his controversial visits to Moscow and Beijing
His remarks on immigration can be summarized in one formula: “The only migrant who will not stay in the Union territory is the one who cannot enter.” To prevent this, he recommends “hot spots externes” where to process asylum applications and claim “Schengen summits” like the summits of the euro zone summits, greeting in passing the new French Minister of the Interior, the very right-wing Bruno Retailleau.
Another point close to his heart: the enlargement of the Union to the Western Balkans with particular attention to Serbia, whose President Vucic is at best with Budapest and Moscow. Castigating “the European elites of the left and center who claim to manage European affairs” et “isolate this or that leader”he insisted that he did not want to leave Europe “but change it”with the support of its far-right allies: the French of the National Rally, the Italians of the Lega, the Austrians of the FPÖ, the Dutch Geert Wilders, the Vlaams Belang… members of the “Patriots for Europe”.
“Make Europe great again” he proclaimed, taking up the slogan of the Hungarian presidency, modeled on the slogan of Donald Trump, whose victory he hopes on November 5. Victory which he considers almost acquired, claiming to prepare for “pop the champagne”.
“There is fire to the rule of law”
Shortly before this “Orban show”, Green MEP Tinneke Strik organized a press conference on the rule of law in Hungary, a subject for which she is responsible for the European Parliament. Accompanied by a united front of four other deputies from the left to the right of the European Parliament, the Dutch woman wanted to evoke “everything that Viktor Orban will certainly not say in plenary on Wednesday”. Namely “the capture of his state by the regime”.
War in Ukraine: Viktor Orban has his own strategy to end the conflict
And to cite the attacks against the judiciary, the violation of the rights of minorities, the stigmatization of LGBT people, the intimidation against human rights defenders, corruption, the brakes on the monitoring of the use of European funds etc. “There is fire to the rule of law”she concluded.
To counter this, the liberals and centrists of the Renew group, “it will be a question of setting benchmarks, of checking whether the objectives are achieved in the event of freezing of European funds for non-compliance with the rule of law – 19 billion euros of the European budget and recovery plan are currently frozen in this framework with regard to Hungary –, to assess trends”specifies Belgian liberal Sophie Wilmès. It is a stakeholder in the Renew Europe working group which is preparing a positioning note intended to improve the European mechanism for protecting the rule of law.
Presented this Tuesday morning “so that Parliament expresses its dissatisfaction with what is happening in Hungary”this document is “in the process of being finalized” and “should be used during the hearings of candidate commissioners in November”specifies the former Prime Minister. To, perhaps, stop what Green MEP Mélissa Camara had described the same morning as “slide of normalization of the extreme right” at work in Europe.
