Category Archives: Viktor Orbán

Turkey has made its mind up about our Nato membership, says Finland

Posted on by

Swedish prime minister also said he hopes Sweden’s accession will be ratified by Ankara after May elections

Finland’s president, Sauli Niinistö, has said he expects his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, to tell him whether Turkey is endorsing the Nordic country’s Nato membership application when the two meet in Ankara later this week.

“It was known that once President Erdoğan has made his decision concerning ratification of Finland’s membership of Nato, he would wish to meet and fulfil his promise directly from president to president,” Niinistö told Reuters on Wednesday.

Continue reading...

Kyiv demands apology after PM Orbán wears scarf showing parts of Ukraine as Hungarian

Posted on by

Ukraine and Romania voice displeasure with Hungarian prime minister for wearing scarf showing Hungary’s pre-world war one territory

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán came under pressure to apologise after posting a video of himself at a football match wearing a scarf that depicted historical Hungary, including parts of Ukraine and neighbouring countries.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said on Tuesday Kyiv would summon Hungary’s ambassador “who will be informed of the unacceptability of Viktor Orbán’s act”.

Continue reading...

EU may suspend €7.5bn in funding from Hungary amid corruption fears

Posted on by

European Commission proposes withholding funds as it awaits ‘gamechanger’ reforms from Orbán government

The EU’s executive arm has proposed suspending €7.5bn in financing for Hungary, as it awaited potential “gamechanger” anti-corruption reforms from Budapest.

The EU and Hungary have been at loggerheads for months, with Brussels suspecting the government led by nationalist prime minister Viktor Orbán of undercutting the rule of law and using EU money to enrich its cronies.

Continue reading...

Hungary tightens abortion access with listen to ‘foetal heartbeat’ rule

Posted on by

Fears move will pave way for more restrictions in country where terminations are widely accepted

Hungarian women seeking an abortion will be obliged to “listen to the foetal heartbeat” before they can access the procedure, according to a new decree issued by the government of the far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán.

The new regulation is due to come into force on Thursday.

Continue reading...

Gazprom has increased gas supply to Hungary, says official

Posted on by

Russian state-owned firm delivering more gas through TurkStream pipeline than ‘contractually obliged’

Gazprom has ramped up flows to Hungary through the TurkStream pipeline that transports gas via Bulgaria and Serbia, a Hungarian foreign ministry official has said.

The Russian state-owned company started delivering more gas than it was contractually obliged to on Friday, Menczer Tamás, an official in Hungary’s ministry of foreign affairs and trade, wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.

Continue reading...

Viktor Orbán’s grip on Hungary’s courts threatens rule of law, warns judge

Posted on by

Csaba Vasvári’s claims of ‘overreach’ follow freeze on EU funds over concerns about judicial independence

Viktor Orbán’s government is “constantly overreaching” its authority to sway the courts, a senior judge has said, in an intervention that will deepen alarm about the rule of law in Hungary.

In rare comments that lift the lid on the Hungarian government’s assault on judicial checks and balances, Csaba Vasvári, a senior judge at the Budapest metropolitan court, told the Observer that he and his colleagues on the bench “have been witnessing external and internal influence attempts” for several years. Vasvári, who has worked as a judge for 18 years, is a spokesperson for the National Judicial Council, a self-governing body that has been battling to defend judges’ independence for more than a decade.

Continue reading...

Orbán urges Christian nationalists in Europe and US to ‘unite forces’ at CPAC

Posted on by

Hungary’s prime minister delivers opening address to American conservatives at CPAC in Texas

Viktor Orbán, the autocratic leader of Hungary, has urged Christian nationalists in Europe and the US to “unite our forces” during a speech to American conservatives in Texas.

The prime minister met the former US president Donald Trump in New Jersey earlier this week and, on Thursday, delivered the opening address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas.

Continue reading...

Hungary’s far-right PM Viktor Orbán speaks at CPAC summit – as it happened

Posted on by

Griner has been sentenced to nine years in prison, Bloomberg reports:

A court in Russia has found Brittney Griner, an Americans women’s basketball star, guilty of drug smuggling, Reuters reports.

Continue reading...

Viktor Orbán sparks outrage with attack on ‘race mixing’ in Europe

Posted on by

Hungary’s far-right prime minister says countries where races mingle are ‘no longer nations’

Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has lashed out against the “mixing” of European and non-European races, in a speech that immediately drew outrage from opposition parties and European politicians.

“We [Hungarians] are not a mixed race … and we do not want to become a mixed race,” said Orbán on Saturday. He added that countries where European and non-Europeans mingle were “no longer nations”.

Continue reading...

Luxembourg PM’s same-sex husband seated next to Viktor Orbán at summit

Posted on by

Hungarian leader was criticised by Xavier Bettel in 2021 for introducing homophobic law

The dozens of invitees were carefully seated along the lengthy table, flanked by columns fashioned out of Bagnères marble and surrounded by paintings from Spain’s Francisco de Goya.

As photos of the Nato dinner at Spain’s royal palace filtered out, many were swift to spot what one Spanish news site described as the image of the summit: the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, seated next to Gauthier Destenay, the first same-sex spouse of a leader of an EU member state.

Continue reading...

EU leaders agree to partial embargo of Russian oil imports

Posted on by

Some 75% of imports will be banned and Sberbank ejected from Swift but Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia to keep supplies

The European Union has agreed to an embargo on most Russian oil imports after late-night talks at a summit in Brussels.

The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, hailed the deal as a “remarkable achievement”, after tweeting on Monday night that sanctions will immediately impact 75% of Russian oil imports, “cutting a huge source of financing for its war machine”.

Continue reading...

Trump shares CPAC Hungary platform with notorious racist and antisemite

Posted on by

Hungarian talkshow host who has called Jews ‘stinking excrement’ and Roma ‘animals’ addresses rightwing conference

A notorious Hungarian racist who has called Jews “stinking excrement”, referred to Roma as “animals” and used racial epithets to describe Black people, was a featured speaker at a major gathering of US Republicans in Budapest.

Zsolt Bayer took the stage at the second day of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Hungary, a convention that also featured speeches from Donald Trump, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, and Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows.

Continue reading...

Killing of civilians in Bucha and Kyiv condemned as ‘terrible war crime’

Posted on by

Europe pledges further sanctions against Russia after reports of killing of scores of unarmed Ukrainians

Russia stands accused of “terrible” war crimes, as western leaders condemned the killings of unarmed civilians in Bucha and the surrounding areas of Kyiv in alleged atrocities that prompted fresh demands for tougher action against Moscow.

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the Kremlin-ordered attack on his country amounted to genocide, after local officials reported scores of civilians had been killed in the towns of Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel near the capital following the withdrawal of Russian forces.

Continue reading...

Russia’s invasion crystallises divide between west and rest of world

Posted on by

Ukraine crisis is uniting democracies in Europe and Pacific but complicating relationships with China, India and Gulf states

“Decide who you are with” Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the European council, pointing to a choice that is becoming increasingly hard to avoid, as the sheer violence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine crystallises the division of the world into two camps.

The camp that stands with Russians is becoming easier to define with every passing day of the war. The colour-coded scoreboard at the UN general assembly in recent weeks, recording the votes on resolutions deploring the attack and calling for a ceasefire, could not have been clearer.

Continue reading...

Outsider from the right backed by Hungary’s left to beat Orbán

Posted on by

Six opposition parties have united behind Péter Márki-Zay for crucial spring vote

When Hungarian opposition leader Péter Márki-Zay was in Brussels at the end of last year, he visited the street where an MEP from prime minister Viktor Orbán’s ruling party, Fidesz, had fled down a drainpipe to evade a police raid on a “gay orgy” that broke lockdown rules. The MEP, who later resigned, had been an architect of a clause in Hungary’s constitution defining marriage as a heterosexual institution. The drainpipe visit was easy political capital for Márki-Zay, seeking to draw attention to the hypocrisy of the governing party, while stressing his commitment to LGBT rights and conservative credentials.

It’s the kind of move that has discombobulated Fidesz, who weren’t expecting to face this kind of challenge in Hungary’s parliamentary elections in spring 2022.

Continue reading...

Orbán rival promises new constitution if he defeats Hungary PM

Posted on by

Opposition leader Péter Márki-Zay says he will restore rule of law if he wins next April’s elections

The opposition leader who hopes to topple Hungary’s autocratic ruler, Viktor Orbán, has vowed to introduce a new constitution and “restore the rule of law” if he wins next April’s elections.

Péter Márki-Zay, a small-town mayor who became the surprise choice as prime ministerial candidate of six opposition parties, made the comments during a visit to Brussels, where he is meeting senior EU officials and politicians, with the message that his priorities are democracy and European integration.

Continue reading...

Hungary: anti-Orbán alliance leads ruling party in 2022 election poll

Posted on by

Six-party grouping ahead by four points after choosing Péter Márki-Zay as prime ministerial candidate

A six-party opposition alliance that aims to topple Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in elections next year has pulled four points clear of the authoritarian prime minister’s Fidesz party after electing a common leader, according to an opinion poll.

The poll, published late on Wednesday, 10 days after the alliance chose a small-town mayor, Péter Márki-Zay, as its prime ministerial candidate, showed support for the united opposition at 39%, compared with 35% for Fidesz and 23% who were unsure.

Continue reading...

Angela Merkel calls for compromise amid row over Polish ECJ snub

Posted on by

German chancellor offers olive branch to Warsaw at what may prove to be her last EU summit

Angela Merkel, who earlier this week reflected on her deep hurt over Brexit, has called for European Union countries to compromise over their competing visions of integration, at what was being billed in Brussels as a farewell summit for the German chancellor.

The attempt by Merkel, at her 107th and possibly final EU summit, to smooth over a dispute over Poland’s rejection of European court of justice rulings, in an olive branch to Warsaw, came as the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, demanded tough action, and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán rallied to the defence of the Polish government.

Continue reading...

Pope urges Hungary to ‘extend its arms to everyone’ in veiled Orbán critique

Posted on by

Pontiff’s statement at start of four-day central Europe tour at odds with far-right PM’s anti-migrant stance

Pope Francis has urged Hungary to “extend its arms towards everyone” in an apparent veiled critique of Viktor Orbán’s anti-migrant policies, as the pontiff began a four-day visit to central Europe in his first big international outing since undergoing intestinal surgery in July.

Francis, 84, appeared in good form during his visit to Budapest, presiding over a lengthy mass and standing as he waved to crowds from his open-sided popemobile. He used a golf cart to avoid walking long distances indoors and confessed at one point that he had to sit because “I’m not 15 any more”. But otherwise he kept up the typical gruelling pace of a papal trip.

Continue reading...