Orbán vows to unite forces of European right

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán held talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Brussels on Monday, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister's press chief, told the state news agency, MTI.

During the meeting, they " evaluated the results of the EP elections, discussed political issues related to the European right, the tasks ahead of the European Council of Heads of State and Government as well as the plans for the Hungarian EU Presidency". The statement does not say, but Meloni is also the chairwoman of the Eurosceptic European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) party family, whose EP group Fidesz is keen to join, but not everyone in the group is enthusiastic about Fidesz's policies on Ukraine and Russia.

According to Havasi, Orbán also held talks with former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Brussels on Monday afternoon on the subject of uniting Europe's right-wing forces. MTI photos also show Orbán holding talks with former Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Janša. Morawiecki is a member of the ECR, while the latter is a member of the centre-right European People's Party.

The odd one out among those with whom Orbán held talks on Monday evening prior to the EU summit was the Dutch liberal Mark Rutte. According to Havasi, "their meeting was about bilateral and international issues". Rutte is in the final days of his premiership and is hoping to take over as NATO secretary-general provided the Hungarian government does not block the unanimous decision, because – as they said – he "had previously sought to bring Hungary to its knees". The Dutch PM, who is the longest-serving EU prime minister after Orbán, has had several conflicts with Viktor Orbán in the past, who on one occasion noticeably avoided mentioning him by name, referring to him only as "the Dutch guy".

According to the official broadcast, unlike Rutte and others, the Hungarian Prime Minister did not speak to journalists on his arrival at the EU summit, but he did publish his comments on the day in a social media post afterwards:

"The results of the European elections are clear: the parties of the right have been strengthened, while the left and the liberals have lost ground". The Prime Minister said that "instead of listening to the electorate, the EPP has finally joined forces with the left and the liberals: today they made a deal and divided up the leading positions in the EU among themselves.

They are ignoring reality, they are ignoring the results of the European elections and they are ignoring the will of the European people. Let us not be naive: they will continue to support migration and send more money and more weapons to the war between Russia and Ukraine. We will not stand for it! We will unite the forces of the European right and fight the pro-migration and pro-war bureaucrats."

When leaving the meeting, Rutte said he was "cautiously optimistic" about Hungary's position, but added: "I will put my discussions with Viktor in writing and then we will see". The next step will be to send a letter to Budapest "as soon as possible, within the next few days", but he ruled out the possibility of a visit to the Hungarian capital, unlike the current NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who visited just a week ago.