Hungary's Orban says he will not back EU budget unless funds released
BUDAPEST : Hungary's government will not support the EU's new seven-year budget unless Brussels unlocks all suspended funds, prime minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday.
In the past 15 years, the nationalist leader has clashed with Brussels over his policies on migration, curbing LGBTQ rights and what critics see as eroding democracy in Hungary. The EU has suspended billions of euros in funds earmarked for Hungary while a rule-of-law dispute drags on.
'The approval of the new seven-year budget requires unanimity and until we get the remaining (frozen) funds, there won't be a new EU budget either,' Orban said in a speech at a summer university in the Romanian town of Baile Tusnad.
He also criticised the EU for supporting Ukraine and accused Brussels of planning to install a 'pro-Ukraine and pro-Brussels government' in Hungary at next year's national vote.
He also said the EU's current leadership has put the bloc on a track that would lead to a trade war that Europe 'cannot win'.
'The current leadership of the EU will always be the last to sign deals with the US and always the worst deals,' Orban added, urging a change in the bloc's leadership.
European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen will meet US President Donald Trump on Sunday in Scotland after EU officials and diplomats said they expected to reach a framework trade deal this weekend.
The European Commission earlier this month proposed a €2 trillion EU budget for 2028 to 2034, with a new emphasis on economic competitiveness and defence.
Then Orban said 'globalist bureaucrats' were plotting to 'drain Europe's money into Ukraine' while 'our farmers are rising up to defend their future'.
Budget debates are among the most difficult in EU politics, bringing to the fore political and economic divisions among member countries.
Orban, who swept the last four elections, faces a tough new opposition challenger in 2026, whose Tisza party has a firm lead over the ruling Fidesz party in most polls, at a time when the economy is stagnating.
But Orban looked confident in his speech and said according to his party's internal data Fidesz would win in 80 out of Hungary's 106 constituencies if elections were held on Sunday.
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