Since Hungary took over the EU presidency on July 1, Viktor Orbán’s aircraft has hardly turned off its engines. First, a surprise visit to Ukraine with a handshake with President Zelensky, just to say that he can talk to everyone. Then a flight to Moscow and talks with his (political) friend, Russian President Putin, sending the message that the Hungarian Prime Minister and current President of the European Council is actually on a peace mission. Individual, of course, because no one in the official EU structures knows anything about it. After that, a flight to Beijing and a cordial meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, who has recently become a significant economic partner (16 billion euros in direct Chinese investments in Hungary), contrary to the official European policy of reducing dependence on China. And Xi was, of course, immediately included in his peace initiative.
Orbán mocks the EU
Now he is already in the official role of Hungarian Prime Minister in Washington, at the NATO summit hosted by the unofficial leader of the only serious Western defense-security alliance, American President Joe Biden, whose visibly weakened mental capacities and determination to continue leading the Western world for the next four years increasingly provoke pity, disbelief, and concern. Meanwhile, Orbán is already counting on Donald Trump being back in the White House from January next year. In the meantime, he has gathered a right-wing group in the European Parliament, Patriots for Europe, which, after the National Rally of Marine Le Pen joined, has become the third strongest group in the EP, with prospects for further growth… All this time, the official structures of the EU, which are in a phase of not offending and negotiating a new administration, have been unable to devise any official response to Viktor Orbán’s foreign policy soloing.
So what is ‘flying Orbán’ actually doing at the beginning of the EU presidency? And why is he doing it? On a superficial level, he is entertaining himself as a self-proclaimed peace mediator, mocking the EU. Through his activities, he sends the message that he is (now) the one to call if you want to talk to the EU. Which, of course, is not true, but only confirms that in the EU you have no one to call when you really want to conduct serious geopolitical discussions. On a deeper level, Orbán certainly wants to weaken the existing EU mainstream nomenclature and become the founder of a new European right, if he cannot be a long-term leader, because Hungary simply is not a state of that order. By isolating everything that is to the right of the imagined center, the current European political mainstream has (been) of great help to him. And what will he do next with the political power he is gaining?
