Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will also participate in the traditional meeting of the 27 EU leaders starting on Thursday in Brussels, who will join the meeting via video link, so the attention on V. Orban will increase even more.
“Hungary is a complicating factor”
“Some leaders will talk directly about very negative influences,” said one diplomat, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue. “Some will say it very directly.”
Another high-ranking diplomat from one of the member states said that “he (V. Orban) was sitting there very comfortably – it was amazing. But let’s get to the point. Hungary is a complicating factor in any discussion of aid and assistance (to Ukraine). It is visible to all. We don’t need to talk about it diplomatically.”
Orbán is not easily embarrassed, as he often excels in dealing with the bloc’s massive opposition.
Earlier this week, he exacerbated the situation when he compared the EU, which has given Hungary billions of euros since its liberation from Soviet rule, to the former communist leaders themselves in Moscow.
“There are things that remind us of Soviet times,” V. Orban said at the beginning of this week. – Fortunately, Brussels is not Moscow. Moscow was a tragedy. Brussels is just a bad modern parody.”
Such speeches were well received across the Atlantic, where former United States President Donald Trump repeatedly praised the Hungarian leader in recent speeches.
V. Orban was the first EU leader to support D. Trump when he ran for the presidency in 2016. He recently said that the former US leader is the only person who can end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Slovakia is a possible new ally
His comments at the EU headquarters in Brussels did not cause laughter. But Orban may have a new ally at the summit table on Thursday, as left-wing populist Robert Fico, who won elections in Slovakia last month, will represent his country as prime minister.
Like Mr. Orban, Mr. Fico spared no warm words for Russia and raised questions about the long war-related sanctions imposed on Moscow. During his country’s election campaign, he raised the bar even further when, in clear opposition to EU policies and promises, he promised to end Slovakia’s military support to Ukraine.
Slovakia’s new prime minister said on Thursday that his government is suspending military aid to Ukraine fighting a Russian invasion. He reiterated his position as he prepared to leave for the summit.
“I will make it clear that I will not vote for any sanctions against Russia until there is an analysis of their impact on Slovakia,” Fico said, arguing that previous sanctions had harmed his country.
These are welcome words for Orban, who may lose his biggest ally in the bloc, Poland’s nationalist government. The opposition, led by former EU Council President Donald Tusk, won Poland’s national elections on October 15 and is now seeking to return the country to the center of EU policy-making, ending much of its existing political alliance with Orban.
At the moment, the EU is talking about the fact that V. Orban, using the unanimity condition, can block various issues, from financial support and arms supplies to Ukraine’s possible membership in the bloc.
But so far, European diplomats said, Orban’s bravado outside the summit center has rarely translated into confrontational behavior behind closed doors. Since the full-scale war that began in February 2022, the 27 states have held together, even if the adoption of some sanctions packages has been delayed by V. Orban’s additional demands.
“When I’m in a gloomy mood on this issue, we have to say that despite Hungary, we as a union have managed to make huge strides,” said a senior EU diplomat.
“But it’s still hard work and sometimes the atmosphere gets ugly,” he said.
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