Latest news with #Viktor Orban
Russia Today
2 hours ago
- Business
- Russia Today
EU nation slams bloc's ‘war budget'
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has described Brussels' recent seven-year fiscal proposal as a 'war budget,' focusing on support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia instead of EU citizens. The €2 trillion ($2.17 trillion) 2028-2034 spending plan published by the European Commission earlier in July includes around €100 billion in aid for Kiev and funds for its potential EU accession. Speaking at a students' summer camp in Romania on Saturday, Orban said the proposed fiscal plan does not serve the interests of European citizens. He accused the 'Brusselian elite' of presenting a budget built on the 'logic of war,' offering 'billions for Ukraine, crumbs for farmers and development.' He claimed that the EU's goal is to defeat Russia in Ukraine, 'paving the way for a change of power' in Moscow. The budget must be approved by all 27 member states, giving Hungary the power to block it. Germany has also rejected the plan as 'unacceptable,' citing deficit concerns, with Chancellor Friedrich Merz saying Ukraine is unlikely to join the EU before the 2034 budget cycle ends. Budapest has opposed Ukraine's bids to join NATO and the EU, warning that these steps could escalate into a full-scale war with Russia. Orban's government has also refused to supply weapons to Kiev and continues to call for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict. While initially unopposed to Ukraine pursuing EU membership, Moscow have since adopted a harsher stance, accusing the bloc of 'rabid militarization' and acting as an extension of NATO.
LBCI
7 hours ago
- Politics
- LBCI
Orban says Trump 'ate' EU chief 'for breakfast' in trade talks
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday lashed out at a trade deal the EU reached with the United States, saying the agreement is "worse" than the deal Britain clinched. "Donald Trump did not reach an agreement with Ursula von der Leyen, but rather Donald Trump ate Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast," Orban said during a Facebook livestream hosted by his party's spokesperson.
New York Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
Trump's Trip to Scotland Echoes an Earlier Visit, When He Applauded Brexit
On a sunny June morning eight years ago, Donald J. Trump arrived at his golf resort in Scotland, the day after Britain voted to leave the European Union. At that time, he took credit for predicting Brexit and said it foretold victory in the insurgent presidential campaign he was mounting back home. On Friday, a second-term President Trump returned to that resort, Trump Turnberry, with a good part of what he said in 2016 now a reality. He had correctly claimed that the political forces that drove Brexit went beyond a single country. Five months after that visit, Mr. Trump captured the White House, having played to anxieties about immigration in ways that echoed the 'Vote Leave' campaign. Yet in Britain, history has diverged from Mr. Trump's vision in important respects. Polls show that close to 60 percent of Britons now believe Brexit was a mistake. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has made mending relations with the European Union one of the priorities of his Labour government. The populist wave that Mr. Trump predicted would wash across Europe has ebbed and flowed, leaving a fragmented political landscape with a handful of populist leaders whose fortunes are mixed. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni of Italy is on the rise, but Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary is struggling. 'Populism is still a relatively limited phenomenon,' said Kim Darroch, who was Britain's ambassador to the United States during Mr. Trump's first term. 'Brexit happened, but it's very hard to argue, even by its most ardent proponents, that it has been anything other than a comprehensive disaster.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
5 days ago
- Politics
- New York Times
I Was Ambassador to Hungary. The America I Returned to Alarms Me.
As the most recent U.S. ambassador to Viktor Orban's Hungary, I'm often asked if the Trump administration's tactics and policies feel familiar. The short answer is yes. But the more important — and unsettling — question is this: Does the way Americans are responding feel familiar, too? After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn't his tactics; it's how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence. Take the judiciary. I met leaders of Hungary's sole independent judicial body in October 2022 to discuss their work. For months afterward, their faces (and mine) were plastered in the papers, branded as traitors and foreign agents, just because they had raised concerns about the rule of law in Hungary. The response from other powerful judges? Silence. Or take the private sector. Since Mr. Orban became prime minister in 2010, the state has awarded billions in public contracts to his son-in-law and childhood friend, a former plumber named Lorinc Meszaros. What have Hungarian business leaders said? Nothing. Last year, when Mr. Orban's close associates reportedly told a multinational retailer to give the prime minister's family a cut of its business, did other multinational companies speak up? They did not. Hungarians with little power or privilege to lose would occasionally protest. But those with power remained reliably, pliably silent. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
