Six EU members to boycott Hungary’s EU presidency due to PM Orbán’s Moscow journey

Poland, the Baltic states and the Scandinavian EU member states will boycott Hungary’s EU presidency because the prime minister visited Moscow. Orbán met Putin last Friday to talk about the possible end of the war in Ukraine. After the visit, Russian missiles hit and destroyed a Ukrainian hospital treating children with cancer.

Euractiv said Poland, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania decided to boycott Hungary’s EU presidency and will not send ministers to the Budapest summits. The first such summit will be concerning environmental issues. We wrote about that HERE.

Those countries will send lower-ranked officials to the informal meetings in Budapest.

The Financial Times wrote that the EU’s legal service found Orbán’s visit to Moscow contradictory to the EU’s fundamental treaties.

Fidesz MEP: Brussels reactions to Orban’s ‘peace mission’ critical

Reactions in Brussels to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “peace mission” have been “critical, offensive and even hysterical” by some people, ruling Fidesz MEP Tamas Deutsch said on Friday. He told public radio that one of the reasons was that the majority of European leaders were pro-war and wanted to send increasing amounts of weapons and money to Ukraine.

The other reason was that their pro-war position was based on the assumption that the only way to peace is war, he added.

“The Hungarian prime minister’s mission has refuted and destroyed that position,” he said.

Orbán’s peace mission “has shown that active diplomatic steps can be made” to promote peace, Deutsch said. He expressed hope that the peace mission would direct the large powers towards peace.

He also said that the European Parliament elections showed that a sovereigntist, patriotic trend was under way in the world.

The Fidesz MEP said that the formation of the Patriots for Europe group in the EP demonstrated a “victory at the European level”, noting that it was the third strongest formation in the EP.

Trump’s victory patriotic turn in world politics

In response to a question, he said there was a realistic chance that Donald Trump would win in the US, and this would bring about a sovereigntist, patriotic turn in world politics, in turn bringing an end to the Ukraine war closer.

He said the Patriots for Europe group could further strengthen in the upcoming period, and added that what was even more important was that serious and effective strategic cooperation could develop with the group of European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) led by Giorgia Meloni, resulting in the second largest force in the EP.

He said chances were good for patriots to win in the Czech Republic and Austria, and within six months or a year a new parliamentary election might be held in France, where Marine Le Pen could come out as a governing force.

He said right wing progress could develop also in the European Council. It was uncertain whether Ursula von der Leyen would get the necessary support to head the European Commission again, and there could be certainly a reshuffle among the commissioners, he added.

Read also:

• PM Orbán: NATO’s task is not to win wars – Read more HERE

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