back in Budapest, Orban castigates the “hateful” debate

This Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, returned to Budapest after the skirmish at the European Parliament, denounced “hostility” deputies against it, going so far as to accuse Brussels of wanting “to spill” his government. “Instead of a calm and calm debate on the great challenges of Europe, they were seized by a fever and engaged in an exchange of invectives”the president said in his regular public radio interview.

“I observed them: it was pure hatred, hostility, a series of attacks ignoring the facts, without any interest for the European people”he added. The nationalist leader, who came to Strasbourg on Wednesday to present the priorities of his rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, came up against attacks from a large part of the hemicycle, for his displayed proximity to Moscow and his attacks on Rule of law.

Divergences

Although accustomed to scrapping with Brussels, he obviously had little taste for the experience and the words of the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, mocking his “peace mission” early July in Russia. “They want to overthrow the government of a member state”he said, surprised to “the transparency and impudence of this approach”. The Hungarian presidency of the EU, which ends in December, was marked by the unprecedented boycott by European commissioners of the meetings organized in Budapest.

Viktor Orban had promised to be “the catalyst for change” of the European institutions, but in the end his six months should end with a meager balance sheet. Its competitiveness pact, made a priority, has “unlikely to succeed” so many are “great differences” with his partners, he admitted on Friday. Since his return to the head of the country in 2010, Viktor Orban has strengthened his grip while bringing the counter-powers into line, an authoritarian drift condemned on several occasions by the European Commission.