{"id":36882,"date":"2024-10-10T13:08:05","date_gmt":"2024-10-10T20:08:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=36882"},"modified":"2024-10-10T13:09:38","modified_gmt":"2024-10-10T20:09:38","slug":"hungarys-orban-pushes-far-right-agenda-in-call-for-change-at-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/10\/hungarys-orban-pushes-far-right-agenda-in-call-for-change-at-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary&#8217;s Orban pushes far-right agenda in call for &#8216;change&#8217; at EU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Hungary&#039;s Orban pushes far-right agenda in call for &#039;change&#039; at EU \u2022 FRANCE 24 English\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hYfD_J_TQ3I?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Hungary&#8217;s nationalist leader Viktor Orban made his case for &#8220;change&#8221; in Europe in a headline address to the EU parliament on Wednesday. His speech was greeted by denunciations as lawmakers took turns to lambast Orban&#8217;s democratic backsliding and pro-Russian positions.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s.france24.com\/media\/display\/2808a670-8623-11ef-b82b-005056a90284\/w:980\/p:16x9\/AP24283327218488.jpg\" alt=\"Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg, October 9, 2024.\"\/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban delivers his speech at the European parliament in Strasbourg, October 9, 2024.&nbsp;\u00a9 Jean-Francois Badias, AP<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By:  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/news-wires\">NEWS WIRES<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Top EU officials took turns assailing&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/hungary\/\">Hungary<\/a>&#8216;s&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/viktor-orban\/\">Viktor Orban<\/a>&nbsp;Wednesday over democratic backsliding and his Russia-friendly stance on&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/ukraine\/\">Ukraine<\/a>, as the nationalist leader delivered a headline address to the bloc&#8217;s parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As President&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/vladimir-putin\/\">Vladimir Putin<\/a>&#8216;s closest ally within the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/european-union\/\">European Union<\/a>, Orban&#8217;s government is at loggerheads with its partners on a host of issues &#8212; from stalling aid for&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/kyiv\/\">Kyiv<\/a>, to what the bloc sees as weakening the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/rule-of-law\/\">rule of law<\/a>&nbsp;at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Strasbourg to present the &#8220;priorities&#8221; of Hungary&#8217;s norm-defying EU presidency, Orban declared that &#8220;the European Union needs to change, and I would like to convince you about that today.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The hard-right prime minister called it the &#8220;most serious period&#8221; in EU history, with the Ukraine war on its doorsteps, escalating conflict in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/middle-east\/\">Middle East<\/a>&nbsp;and a &#8220;migration crisis&#8221; he said could cause the Schengen open border system to &#8220;fall apart.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lawmakers listened respectfully &#8212; with occasional applause from sympathetic members &#8212; but a rowdy rendition of the anti-fascist anthem &#8220;Bella Ciao&#8221; rang out as Orban finished speaking, prompting a call to order from parliament president Roberta Metsola who said: &#8220;This is not Eurovision&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That was the cue for lawmakers to take the floor and one by one assail the Hungarian leader with a message summed up by Green co-leader Terry Reintke who told him: &#8220;You are not welcome here, this is the house of European&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/democracy\/\">democracy<\/a>.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Commission chief&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/ursula-von-der-leyen\/\">Ursula von der Leyen<\/a>, speaking right after Orban, pushed back hard &#8212; taking aim at Budapest&#8217;s stalling of EU support for Kyiv and refusal to join Western efforts to arm Ukraine to fight off Moscow.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;There is only one path to achieve a just peace for Ukraine and for Europe, we must continue to empower Ukraine&#8217;s resistance with political, financial and military support,&#8221; von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">&#8216;Propaganda show&#8217;<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>When Hungary assumed the EU&#8217;s rotating six-month presidency in July, Orban went off script: embarking on an uncoordinated Ukraine &#8220;peace mission&#8221; to Kyiv, Moscow and Beijing that sparked ire in Brussels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In a forceful address von der Leyen targeted Orban&#8217;s eagerness to push for an early peace deal with Putin over the Ukraine invasion &#8212; assailing those &#8220;who blame this war not on the invader but the invaded, not on Putin&#8217;s lust for power, but on Ukraine&#8217;s thirst for freedom.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking next, the leader of the conservative European People&#8217;s Party Manfred Weber said he was shocked that Orban devoted not a &#8220;single sentence&#8221; to the plight of Ukraine, and slammed his rogue&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/diplomacy\/\">diplomacy<\/a>&nbsp;conducted under the EU banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Your trip was never a peace mission. It was a big propaganda show for the autocrats,&#8221; he charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In response to Orban&#8217;s uncoordinated trips, von der Leyen ordered top officials to skip a series of meetings organised by the Hungarian presidency &#8212; a de facto boycott &#8212; and his address to the EU parliament was twice delayed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The commission chief also skewered Orban&#8217;s stance on migration &#8212; accusing his government of &#8220;throwing problems over your neighbour&#8217;s fence&#8221; with the early release of convicted people-traffickers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>And she took aim at a Hungarian visa scheme for Russian nationals &#8212; calling it &#8220;a back door for foreign interference.&#8221;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Daily newsletter<\/strong>Receive essential international news every morning<a href=\"https:\/\/emailing.france24.com\/en\/subscribe\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Subscribe<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Mainstream EU lawmakers had promised to hold Orban to account with the Hungarian opposition-leader-turned-MEP Peter Magyar among the speakers lined up to challenge him, and photo-op protests staged outside the hemicycle by the various political groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;No cash for corrupt,&#8221; read one banner held up by left-wing lawmakers &#8212; in a reference to the billions of euros on EU funds for Hungary currently frozen over rule-of-law concerns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since returning to lead his country in 2010, Orban has moved to curb&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/civil-rights\/\">civil rights<\/a>&nbsp;and tighten his grip on power, repeatedly clashing with&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/brussels\/\">Brussels<\/a>&nbsp;over rule-of-law issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But Orban has pointed at hard-right electoral gains from Italy to the Netherlands and Austria &#8212; and the rising influence of a Hungarian-led new group in the EU parliament, the Patriots for Europe &#8212; as evidence the political&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.france24.com\/en\/tag\/climate\/\">climate<\/a>&nbsp;in Europe is slowly but surely shifting in his favour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>(AFP)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hungary&#8217;s nationalist leader Viktor Orban made his case for &#8220;change&#8221; in Europe in a headline address to the EU parliament on Wednesday. His speech was greeted by denunciations as lawmakers took turns to lambast Orban&#8217;s democratic backsliding and pro-Russian positions.\u00a0 By: NEWS WIRES Top EU officials took turns assailing&nbsp;Hungary&#8216;s&nbsp;Viktor Orban&nbsp;Wednesday&#8230; <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2024\/10\/10\/hungarys-orban-pushes-far-right-agenda-in-call-for-change-at-eu\/\"> Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr; <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36882"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36884,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36882\/revisions\/36884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}