Country held chair due to rotating presidency despite Orbán government being under EU sanctions procedure
Hungary’s government has presided over EU talks on upholding democratic standards across the continent, in a development one prominent MEP described as “outrageous”.
Viktor Orbán’s government has been under an EU sanctions procedure since 2018 for posing a “systemic threat” to democracy and the rule of law.
Continue reading...Deadly Storm Boris has dumped up to five times average September rainfall in four days
As swollen rivers continued to rise, volunteers and emergency workers in towns and cities across a swathe of central Europe were reinforcing defences against floods that have killed at least 21 people in four countries.
Storm Boris has dumped up to five times the average September rainfall on parts of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia in four days, submerging entire neighbourhoods and forcing hundreds of thousands of people to evacuate.
Continue reading...Czech Republic, Poland and Austria fear worst may yet be to come as thousands are evacuated to higher ground
The death toll from torrential rain and flooding in central and eastern Europe has risen to at least 16, with several more people missing, as authorities reported deaths in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria and warned the worst may be to come.
The number of victims in Poland rose to five after a surgeon returning from work drowned in the south-western town of Nysa, where the hospital was evacuated and patients rescued by raft. Four more people had died in the southern towns of Bielsko-Biała and Lądek-Zdrój, firefighters said.
Continue reading...Storm Boris has caused rivers to burst banks and trapped people in their homes across Austria, Poland and Slovakia
Seven people have drowned in Austria, Poland and Romania and four others are missing in the Czech Republic as Storm Boris continues to lash central and eastern Europe, bringing torrential rain and floods that have forced the evacuation of thousands of people from their homes.
Swathes of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia have been battered by high winds and unusually fierce rains since Thursday.
Continue reading...Fundamental rights body warns of flawed approach to credible accounts of ill-treatment and loss of life
Authorities in EU member states are not doing enough to investigate credible reports of violations of human rights, including deaths, on their borders, an EU human rights body has said.
The EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) said human rights agencies and NGOs were reporting “serious, recurrent and widespread rights violations against migrants and refugees during border management” but despite “credible” reports many were not investigated.
Continue reading...Far-right leader talks of new Asia-oriented world order and throws support behind Donald Trump
Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, said on Saturday that the EU was sliding toward oblivion, in a rambling anti-west speech in which he warned of a new, Asia-oriented “world order” while throwing his support behind Donald Trump’s US presidential bid.
“Europe has given up defending its own interests,” Orbán said in Băile Tuşnad, a majority ethnic Hungarian town in central Romania. “All Europe is doing today is following the US’s pro-Democrat foreign policy unconditionally … even at the cost of self-destruction.
Continue reading...Secret ballot for MEPs to decide whether the European Commission president will serve another five-year term
Renew Europe’s leader, Valérie Hayer, has posted a photo with Ursula von der Leyen, ahead of the vote.
The Greens group said it will back Ursula von der Leyen, a centre-right politician, for a second term as European Commission president.
Continue reading...Petr Fiala says Hungarian PM’s trip to Moscow recalls appeasement of Hitler and is not in Europe’s interests
Viktor Orbán’s efforts to style himself as a high-level peacemaker by meeting world leaders including Vladimir Putin are “wrong” and “not in the interest of Europe”, the Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, has said, recalling lessons from attempts to appease Adolf Hitler before the second world war.
The Hungarian prime minister has stoked controversy in recent weeks for embarking on what he has termed a “peace mission” while his country holds the Council of the EU’s rotating presidency. The international trips have involved meetings with Putin, China’s Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
Continue reading...‘Likely outcome’ of Trump victory means EU should reopen diplomatic talks with Moscow, says Hungarian PM
Viktor Orbán has claimed that Donald Trump has “detailed and well-founded” plans for peace between Russia and Ukraine in a letter to a top EU body that is likely to inflame tensions about the Hungarian prime minister’s diplomatic freelancing.
Orbán, who met Trump at his Palm Beach compound last week, said in his letter to the president of the European Council, who organises meetings of the bloc’s 27 national leaders, that the Republican presidential nominee was ready to act as peace broker “immediately” after his election.
Continue reading...Also snubbing Biden, the prime minister has enraged Nato allies as he tries to broker a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will fly to Mar-a-Lago on Thursday to meet with Donald Trump, according to two sources with knowledge of the meeting.
Orbán has enraged his Nato allies by meeting with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping en route to the alliance’s summit in Washington DC. He has also met with Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, and is said to be quietly negotiating his own ceasefire plan without consulting either the Biden administration or other EU countries.
Continue reading...Brussels disassociates itself from Hungarian PM’s Moscow trip, which he has tried to cast as a peace mission
Viktor Orbán, Europe’s most pro-Russia leader, arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Vladimir Putin, days after making his first visit to Kyiv, as the Hungarian prime minister attempts to position himself as a peace broker between Russia and Ukraine.
Orbán’s trip to Moscow has drawn strong rebukes from fellow EU leaders and comes in the week that Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year.
Continue reading...Hungarian PM ‘trying to mediate between Russia and Ukraine’ after Hungary took over rotating EU presidency
Viktor Orbán will travel to Moscow on Friday for talks with Vladimir Putin, sources said, days after Hungary’s prime minister made his first visit to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.
Two sources in Budapest told the Guardian about the trip, saying it was planned as part of a package with the Ukraine visit after Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency this week.
Continue reading...Sources say Hungary’s pro-Russia PM planning to visit president Volodymyr Zelenskiy one day after assuming EU presidency
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is expected to travel to Kyiv on Tuesday, according to three sources with knowledge of the plans, in a surprise visit for one of Europe’s most pro-Russian leaders, which comes as Hungary takes over the rotating presidency of the EU.
Two sources in Budapest said Orbán was expected to meet President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv, in the Hungarian prime minister’s first trip to neighbouring Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion more than two years ago.
Continue reading...Activist says threat of up to 11 years in prison ‘still scares me a lot’ and she intends to speak up for prisoners’ rights
An Italian activist who was released from house arrest in Hungary after she was elected as an MEP has spoken of her gratitude to the voters who gave her back her freedom and vowed to continue to fight for the rights of prisoners and against the rise of neofascist groups in Europe.
The case of Ilaria Salis, a teacher from Monza, near Milan, sparked anger and diplomatic protests in Italy when she brought to court in Hungary in chains in January. She had been arrested nearly a year earlier at a counter-demonstration to a neo-Nazi rally in Budapest and charged with three counts of attempted assault and membership of an extreme leftwing organisation – charges that carry a potential prison sentence of 11 years.
Continue reading...David Pressman describes personal experience in speech condemning Viktor Orbán’s legal and rhetorical attacks
The US ambassador in Budapest has accused the government of Hungary’s far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of using a “machinery of fear” to launch legal and rhetorical attacks on the LGBTQ community.
“Fear is something those who seek to undermine democracy trade on, and their currency is too often you and your families,” David Pressman said at a family Pride event at the ambassador’s residence.
Continue reading...Netherlands PM will replace Jens Stoltenberg after making promise not to deploy Hungarian forces in Ukraine
Mark Rutte, the outgoing Dutch prime minister, is expected to become the next head of Nato after winning over Hungary’s prime minister with a promise not to deploy Budapest’s forces or spend its money supporting Ukraine.
Viktor Orbán, the leader in Nato seen as closest to Russia, announced he had dropped his objections after discussions with Rutte, prompting the current secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, to declare that the selection process would end “very soon”.
Continue reading...European court also orders Budapest to pay €200m for ‘unprecedented’ breach of rules
Hungary has been ordered to pay a €200m (£169m) fine for its refusal to uphold the rights of asylum seekers in what was described as an “unprecedented” breach of EU law by the bloc’s highest court.
The European court of justice in Luxembourg also ordered Budapest to pay €1m a day until it complies with EU laws guaranteeing refugees the right to claim asylum inside Hungarian borders.
Continue reading...Péter Magyar’s Tisza party trails the populist leader in the polls, but is offering liberal voters renewed hope
Thousands of people rallied in Budapest on Saturday as a political newcomer led a push to mobilise voters against Hungary’s populist prime minister, Viktor Orbán, ahead of European elections on Sunday.
“We defeated apathy,” declared Péter Magyar, a former government insider who switched sides and launched an opposition movement, as he stood in front of a vast crowd which filled the capital’s Heroes’ Square.
Continue reading...Ilaria Salis, 39, says she is being persecuted for her beliefs in case that has led to tensions between two countries
An Italian anti-fascist activist has gone on trial in Hungary for allegedly attacking neo-Nazis, in a case that has sparked tensions between the two EU allies.
Ilaria Salis, 39, arrived at the Budapest court accompanied by her father, with Italy’s ambassador and a throng of Italian journalists also in attendance. She left to applause after the court heard testimony from one of the victims and two witnesses. None of the three could personally identify Salis, as their attackers were masked.
Continue reading...Hungarian police called to scene of accident on shore of the River Danube near Veroce
Hungarian police say two people have died and five are missing following a boat collision on the Danube.
Hungarian police received a report late on Saturday night that a man had been found bleeding from his head on the shore of the river near the town of Veroce, about 30 miles (50km) north of the capital, Budapest.
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