VSquare: Tusk and Fiala were shouting at Orbán while Fico remained silent

According to VSquare's newsletter, last week, when the four V4 heads of government met behind closed doors in Prague, they sought to clarify why Hungary had previously blocked Sweden's accession to NATO and EU aid to Ukraine. According to sources with insight into the meeting, the debate became so heated that Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk were shouting at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, while Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico remained silent.

Two Czech sources close to the government said the debate was "very heated". This contributed to a prolonged meeting, so much so that the scheduled press conference ended up being delayed.

Update: Bertalan Havasi, Viktor Orbán's press chief contacted Telex after the publication of our article, and said that it was "fake news" that they had shouted at the Prime Minister. Havasi added that "it was a meeting between four people, the results of which were presented at the press conference."

Earlier, Viktor Orbán said that this was the 52nd meeting of the Visegrád Four that he had attended as Prime Minister, but it was one of the most difficult. He also noted that he had engaged in a very rare, intellectually and politically stimulating debate.

A few dozen demonstrators greeted Orbán and Slovakia's Fico, two prime ministers of the Visegrád Four considered to be pro-Russian, with booing and jeering outside the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague.

Besides support for NATO enlargement and Ukraine, the relationships within the V4 are also strained by differences over attitudes towards the EU. However, following the defeat of Law and Justice (PiS) in Poland in last autumn's elections, which is based on the same ideological platform as Viktor Orbán, and the return of Donald Tusk – who is now leading a broader coalition – to power, this has changed. Warsaw is well on its way to mending its relationship with Brussels, which will give it access to substantial EU funds that have been cut off from it over rule of law concerns in the same way as they have been withheld from Hungary due to the policies of the Hungarian government.

In Slovakia, on the other hand, last autumn's elections brought a change in the other direction, when Robert Fico's party won the elections again, allowing him to take the premiership for the third time after more than five years. Fico is as opposed to Western armed support for Ukraine as Orbán, so the Hungarian Prime Minister may have found an ally in the V4 at least on this issue.