Ursula von der Leyen lambasts Viktor Orbán over Russia

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Ursula von der Leyen lashed out at Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for supporting Russia in its war against Ukraine, in an unprecedented attack by a European Commission president on a national leader.

In a speech at the European parliament on Wednesday, von der Leyen listed multiple grievances Brussels had with Orbán, the self-styled “illiberal” premier who consistently obstructs EU aid for Kyiv and seeks to weaken the bloc’s sanctions against Russia.

“There are still some who blame this war not on the invader but on the invaded. Not on Putin’s lust for power but on Ukraine’s thirst for freedom,” she said, comparing Ukrainians to the Hungarians who tried to resist a Soviet invasion in 1956.

Orbán denied the accusations and claimed the commission was overstepping as he held his own speech on behalf of the EU rotating presidency. The EU executive body should be “neutral” and a “guardian of the treaties”, he said, but instead had become a “political weapon”.

Von der Leyen implicitly criticised Orbán’s visit to Moscow this summer to try to broker a peace deal with Vladimir Putin — a trip most EU leaders quickly denounced as not having been on their behalf.

She also said Hungary should join EU countries that had stopped buying Russian gas and oil. “Russia has proven time and again, it is simply not a reliable supplier. So there can be no more excuses,” she said. 

Frustration has grown among many EU governments over Orbán’s repeated blocking of proposals. He is preventing reimbursements for weapons they have sent to Ukraine and is resisting plans for the bloc to raise €35bn for Kyiv.

But Orbán has also coalesced resurgent far-right parties from France, Italy, Austria and the Netherlands into a new group in the European parliament called Patriots for Europe, which shares his pro-Russian views and is now the third-largest in the EU assembly.

Von der Leyen said his claims to be a patriot protecting Europe were false.

“How can it be that the Hungarian government invites Russian nationals into our union without additional security checks? This makes the new Hungarian visa scheme a security risk, not only for Hungary but for all member states.

“And how can it be that the Hungarian government would allow Chinese police to operate within its territory? This is not defending Europe’s sovereignty. It is a back door for foreign interference.”

On migration, she accused Hungary of releasing “convicted smugglers and traffickers before they did their time. This is not fighting illegal migration in Europe. This is just throwing problems over your neighbour’s fence.”

Von der Leyen also said Hungary was “drifting away from the single market”. It taxed EU companies more than others and imposed export restrictions, she said. “And how can a government be trusted by European businesses if it targets them with arbitrary inspections or blocks their permits, if public contracts mostly go to a small group of beneficiaries?”

Orbán, the bloc’s longest-serving leader, attacked the session as a “political intifada”, adding: “All these leftist lies about Hungary are pure political propaganda.”

He claimed there were far fewer Russian nationals in Hungary — 7,000 — than in Germany, von der Leyen’s native country. The people smugglers who were released had served their time, he said. He also defended Hungary’s continued purchasing of Russian fossil fuels by saying that other countries were also still doing it despite the war in Ukraine.

Orbán denied there was any corruption in Hungary and instead made a oblique reference to the EU parliament’s own past scandals, noting that “this body has some expertise when it comes to corruption”. 

He claimed the assembly was undemocratic because his Patriots group was excluded from senior positions such as committee chairs. It gave Orbán a rapturous reception, underlying the deep divisions in the house after June’s general election.