File photo of Viktor Orbán in Brussels
Former Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will return to Brussels next week for the first time since his party, FIDESZ, lost the April elections, Világgazdaság reported. The visit is in connection with the annual summit of the political alliance “Patriots for Europe,” which is held each time prior to a meeting of the European Council, Euronews reported.
According to Viktor Orbán’s spokesperson, Bertalan Havasi, the former prime minister will join the group’s other leaders on June 17, including Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
The European Council summit will take place the following day, on June 18–19. As part of his Brussels itinerary, Orbán will also hold a press conference.
Hungary will be represented at the EU summit this time by Prime Minister Péter Magyar. This is the first time in nearly two decades that Orbán will not be representing Hungary’s interests at the negotiating table.
Photo: Facebook/ Viktor Orbán
Fact
The Patriots for Europe group was founded by Orbán himself in 2024 and is currently the third-largest political group in the European Parliament. The founding parties of the group include Hungary’s FIDESZ, the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), and the Czech ANO, and were soon joined by several other right-wing forces, including France’s National Rally (RN) and other parties.
The group’s goal is to strengthen the sovereignty of nation-states, counteract the centralization of EU decision-making, and preserve the cultural and historical identities of European nations. According to the group’s representatives, instead of an excessive concentration of power in Brussels, decisions should be made at the member state level, with a focus on protecting borders, supporting families, and reducing migration pressure.
The latter issue also holds domestic political significance in Hungary. On Saturday, Orbán posted a brief but firm statement on his social media page. In it, the former Hungarian prime minister called on the TISZA government and Magyar to immediately announce
that Hungary will not implement the Brussels migration pact, which takes effect on June 12.
As expected, Magyar also responded to the call on social media. However, he avoided giving a direct answer, instead posing a question: “Why did Viktor Orbán, who was head of government at the time, not prevent the pact from being adopted by the European Union?”.
The Migration Pact has become a hot topic in recent days. On the one hand, this is understandable given the June 12 deadline for its adoption; on the other hand, it garnered renewed attention a week ago when Ursula von der Leyen, standing alongside Magyar, began speaking about the Migration Pact.
Fact
The Migration and Asylum Pact is a new package of rules aimed at managing migration and establishing a common EU-wide asylum system. The European Parliament voted on the new migration rules on April 10, 2024, which were then officially adopted by the Council of the EU on May 14, 2024. It is fundamentally based on member states jointly managing migration pressure, to which every country must provide some proportionate contribution. On paper, this can take the form of financial support, technical assistance, or the reception of a certain number of asylum-seeking migrants.
The FIDESZ government has previously stated that we must expect hundreds of thousands of people to set out for Europe in the event of an escalation of war, and that the migration pact is not suitable for preventing this.
Via vg.hu, Euronews; Featured photo: MTI/Fischer Zoltán
