‘We’re in a boat that’s going to weather a huge storm’ – Technologist

For the occasion, Viktor Orban, a keen football fan, chose the Puskas Arena, the large stadium named after the legendary football player Ferenc Puskas (1927-2006), and recently built in Budapest. On Thursday, November 7, the Hungarian prime minister welcomed 42 European heads of state and government, including his counterparts from the European Union (EU), to the European Political Community (EPC) summit.

In the wake of Donald Trump’s sweeping victory in the US presidential election and the fall of Olaf Scholz’s coalition in Germany, most of the leaders present in Budapest had cause for concern. Especially since, as one senior European official summed up, “There is no third country that divides Europeans more than the US.” Busy with Germany’s political crisis, Scholz did not attend the EPC summit on Thursday, and only came to Budapest for the European Council meeting that evening.

Around the European Council President Charles Michel, there were also fears of provocation from Orban, who fervently supported Trump and whose many supporters celebrated the fall of the German coalition, which they found too left-wing. But the Hungarian leader played it soberly, much to the amusement of the Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, who was entertained to see “the whole of Europe gathered in the pen of the black sheep.”

In his opening speech, Orban did not even mention the name of his “friend” Trump. “The future of our ties with the United States is an unavoidable aspect of the European security architecture,” he said politely, adding, “We’re going to talk about how to strengthen our strategic autonomy,” echoing an idea dear to Emmanuel Macron.

“We need to examine whether we see the challenges ahead of us in the same way, and whether we are looking for answers in similar directions,” continued Orban, who, since the start of the war in Ukraine, has flaunted his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Behind his vision of “strategic autonomy,” he not only wants Europe to free itself from American interests, but also to move closer to those of China and Russia.

Be constructive

The Hungarian leader, who had promised to open “several bottles of champagne” in the event of a Trump victory, also had no plans to force his EU counterparts to toast the president-elect at the dinner the 27 member states devoted to the US election on Thursday evening. He explained that he was in Kyrgyzstan when the results of the American election came in, and, given the country’s “different traditions,” “we happily dipped into the vodka reserves and shared our joy at this fantastic result.”

You have 68.32% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.