Orbán urges shake-up of ‘bad’ EU leadership at coming election

BRUSSELS — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday called for a change of leadership in Brussels as he blasted the European Union’s policies on migration and Ukraine.

“The sense of this European election is to change the leadership,” the Hungarian leader said during a gathering of prominent right-wingers in Brussels. “If the leadership proves to be bad, it must be replaced. It’s that simple.”

Orbán is bidding to tilt the EU in his direction after June’s European election, for which polls currently forecast a right-wing surge. A rightward swing could drastically shift EU policies on key issues from climate to the war in Ukraine.

The Hungarian leader’s blunt remarks took place at the National Conservatism Conference, a two-day gathering of right-wing leaders that caused uproar in Brussels when local municipalities tried to stop it from happening due to what authorities said were safety concerns.

Addressing a room of hundreds of academics, officials and journalists, Orbán likened the police intervention at the conference to “oppression” in communist Hungary during the 1980s.

“I think freedom in Europe, and especially in Brussels, is in danger, as yesterday it was shown,” Orbán said, triggering a round of applause from the crowd. “Whether we call it communism or not, we are living on the verge of […] oppression in Europe.”

Orbán, never shy of attacking the EU despite being a member, sharply criticized the bloc’s migration policy during his conversation with conference chairman Yoram Hazony. He said that living “in a Christian society” is “an amazing thing. Why should we give it up?”

Orbán is widely regarded as the closest EU ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and he said he does not want to give up Budapest’s long-standing “economic relations” with Moscow, despite the Kremlin’s ongoing war against Ukraine.

While he recognizes Ukraine’s right to defend itself, Orbán said this is “not the war of the Hungarians.”

“What the Europeans are doing is bad, it’s not targeting on cease-fire and we don’t confront seriously with all the consequences of supporting a country who is in a war which cannot be [won],” he said.

Ukraine is now merely a “protectorare” of the West, he added, as without money and weapons from the EU and the U.S., Ukraine “as a state will cease to exist,” Orbán said.

Echoing one of Putin’s favorite justifications for his full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Orbán said the conflict is about Kyiv’s potential NATO membership and that the Russian leader will never give in on this.

“They will always do everything they can to have something between the Russian border and NATO countries’ border,” he said. “A buffer zone must exist.”

The conference, which includes leading conservatives such as the U.K.’s Nigel Farage and former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, kicked off Tuesday at the Claridge, a venue close to the European Quarter. But the gathering turned chaotic when local police showed up, at the behest of the local mayor, to shut down the jamboree.

Organizers were able to continue the conference on Tuesday, although police stood by the door and prevented new arrivals from entering.

A Belgian court eventually struck down the local mayor’s order and allowed the conference to move ahead on Wednesday with no interference.