A dinner to try to calm Franco-Hungarian relations. Emmanuel Macron receives the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, this Monday night at the Élysée. The two men had not seen each other face to face since December 2021, during a trip by the French head of state to Budapest.
“The two leaders will address the ongoing discussions at the European level, in particular on support for Ukraine, strengthening European competitiveness, energy issues and support for the European defense industry,” ahead of the next European Council of the next week, explained the Élysée in a press release. .
Ambiguity towards Putin
Hungary, a member of the European Union and NATO, has not condemned Putin by name since the beginning of the Russian military offensive, although he condemned the invasion of Moscow. Since the beginning of the conflict, Viktor Orban has been concerned with maintaining good relations with the Kremlin in order to continue receiving gas and oil.
The nationalist prime minister had thus accused Brussels in November of cunningly “shooting” Hungary with his series of sanctions against Russiadescribed by Budapest as a “bombshell” on the economy.
On the side of Paris, the president has always been concerned with maintaining the link with the Hungarian. “He is a political adversary, but a European partner”, Emmanuel Macron did not fail to underline in his speech on the orientations of his rotating presidency of the EU at the end of 2021, a few weeks after the start of the war between Ukraine and Russia
Blocked a recovery plan of 12,000 million euros
Beyond the Ukrainian question, Viktor Orban is in the crosshairs of the European Commission after many violations of the rule of law. Attacks on the independence of the judiciary and the action of NGOs, corruption at the top, anti-LGBT laws… Enough to push the Brussels justice to seize the European court of justice.
As a retaliatory measure, the Brussels institutions have decided to block the payment of subsidies from the European recovery plan for an amount of 12,000 million euros.
Bad news for this country, faced with galloping inflation, which might eventually want to show a more accommodating face towards Europe.
Source: BFM TV
