BRUSSELS – Hungary’s authoritarian leader Viktor Orban has a lot in common with Russia’s Vladimir Putin: they are both hard right politically, rail against Western values and lambast Ukraine for its corruption.
Indeed, Mr Orban’s efforts to pull down democratic guardrails in Hungary by undermining judicial independence, curbing minority rights and rigging elections are seen by critics as copying Mr Putin’s playbook in Russia.
But the Hungarian prime minister’s recent blocking of a critical funding lifeline for Ukraine has raised questions about how long the rest of the European Union can put up with his increasingly hardline antics.
The EU was hoping to agree at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday on a package of €66bn (£57bn) in aid to help Ukraine balance its books and continue pushing back against Russia’s invasion. However, Mr Orban is vetoing the measure, in what officials say is an attempted blackmail of the rest of the EU.
Just last month, there were hopes that the summit could agree to formally open Kyiv’s talks to join the bloc, but the European Council president, Charles Michel, is now likely to focus solely on aid.
Mr Orban infuriated EU leaders in October when he shook hands with Mr Putin in Beijing. He has also been liaising with hard-right Republicans in the United States, who have made similar demands about halting aid to Ukraine.
His stance on Ukraine is partly ideological. As well as being the closest EU leader to Mr Putin, while continuing to import Russian natural gas, Mr Orban claims that ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine are persecuted.
He is locked in a long-running feud with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – they briefly met at the inauguration of Argentina’s newly elected president Javier Milei on Sunday – and last week said: “Ukraine is known to be one of the most corrupt countries in the world.”
Mr Orban is also wielding his veto as he hopes to coerce the bloc’s other 26 members to release cash for Budapest: €27bn (£23bn) in EU aid earmarked for Hungary is currently frozen because of concerns over corruption and that the country is breaching EU standards on the rule of law.
His stance has made him the focus of attention ahead of what is likely to be a long and bad-tempered summit. French President Emmanuel Macron last week invited Mr Orban to Paris in an attempt to break the deadlock. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock urged him to drop the theatrics, saying: “We have no time for games at this moment.”
But Mr Orban’s tactics could work. The European Commission says that it could release up to €10bn (£8.6bn), despite concerns from NGOs and MEPs that this would let Hungary off the hook for its breaches in the rule of law.
“Politically, it’s a devastating signal,” said German Green Party MEP Daniel Freund. “If Orbán succeeds, others will follow his example and abuse their veto… It will significantly weaken the European Union in the future.”
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