Orbán cabinet working to build ‘anti-Ukraine alliance’: allies revealed
Hungary is seeking to reinforce its political alliances in Brussels and is working to build an “Ukraine-skeptic alliance” with Slovakia and the Czech Republic, Balázs Orbán, the prime minister’s political director, has said in an interview to news portal Politico.
Orbán cabinet working to build ‘anti-Ukraine alliance’
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has hopes for cooperation with Andrej Babis, whose party has won Czechia’s recent election, and Slovak counterpart Robert Fico, under which they could come up with a unified position on the matter before the upcoming European Union summit, the political director said in the interview published on Tuesday.
“I think it will come — and be more and more visible,” the political director said, when asked about the potential for a Ukraine-skeptic alliance to start acting as a bloc in the European Council.
The Hungarian government’s efforts to build political ties were not restricted to the European Council, Orbán said, adding that in the European Parliament the Patriots group could also build partnerships with the European Conservatives and Reformers as well as with the Europe of Sovereign Nations and some leftist groups.
Hungarian government reconstructing V4 alliance
Meanwhile, he said parties in the European mainstream, such as the European People’s Party, could turn against EC President Ursula von der Leyen “sooner or later“, destroying the centrist majority that supported her re-election.
“So this reconstruction of the [Visegrad Four] is going on. We have the third-largest European parliamentary faction. We have a think tank network, which is widely here [in Brussels], and it has a transatlantic leg as well. And we are looking for partners, allies on every topic,” he told Politico.
- Orbán: Trump made a mistake with sanctions, I’ll visit him soon
Orbán defended Hungarian EU commissioner Várhelyi
Asked about Hungary’s general election taking place in the spring, Orbán said he expected a “tough” campaign, adding that an “organised, coordinated effort to try to push out the Hungarian government” which included “politically supporting the opposition” was under way.
Answering another question concerning Olivér Várhelyi, Hungary’s commissioner for health, whom press reports suggested as having recruited spies to EU institutions earlier, Orbán said “Várhelyi is doing a great job.”
“They are just … issues which are used to portray Hungary as some country which is not loyal to the institutions,” he added. “We want to be inside. We are part of the club.”
Read more of our articles concerning the ongoing Russian attack in Ukraine.
Is it really an “anti-Ukraine” alliance or is it an alliance to stand up to those who think that support for Ukraine should not be unlimited, up to and including getting ourselves enmeshed in a third world war?