Floods in Hungary, latest: Orbán postpones all international trips, near-record flooding expected, levee with 1,000 tonnes of rocks – photos
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In the last few hours, there have been several events related to the flooding, summarised here:
Orbán postpones all international obligations
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday that he has postponed all of his international obligations due to the extreme weather conditions and the ongoing floods in Hungary.
He posted the announcement on the X social media platform.
Orbán had canceled his speech at the European Parliament, a visit to Vatican City later this week, and will not attend the UN General Assembly in New York. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó will represent Hungary at the latter, he added.
Magyar: PM made the right decision to postpone the Strasbourg trip
“Accepting our recommendation, Viktor Orbán canceled his participation in the European Parliament debate in Strasbourg,” Magyar said in a statement.
“This is the right decision,” he said. “There is no place for political debates in such a serious flood situation, as it calls for total national unity.”
Near-record flood levels
Istvan Lang, the head of Hungary’s Directorate of Water Management, said the recent heavy rainfall has resulted in flood waves in the catchment areas of the Danube and Leitha rivers.
Lang said the flooding of the Leitha is expected to approach or exceed the record water levels. He added that an emergency reservoir will likely have to be opened above the northwestern town of Mosonmagyarovar. The river’s water will be released onto a 140-hectare agricultural area to ease the burden on the town.
Concerning the Danube, he said that water levels at the Szigetkoz island plain in the northwest are expected to reach near-record highs but won’t affect the populated areas. He said the Danube is expected to peak on Thursday and Friday at the Szigetkoz area at Nagybacs near Komarom-Esztergom in the north and Budapest on Saturday and Sunday.
He said the peak water level is expected to be 30-40cm below the 2013 level.
Zoltan Gora, who heads the National Disaster Management Directorate, said the operative bodies overseeing the protection efforts were now all up and running.
If other EU members would have concentrated on building flood plains, Hungary would not be in danger of flooding. All that money supporting a never-ending war in Ukraine should have been used for improving the levee system.