Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban traveled to Brussels on Wednesday evening to meet disgruntled farmers, siding with the “people” as he faces a front from the other 26 European leaders grappling with aid for the Ukraine.
“It is a mistake for Europe not to take the voice of the people seriously,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook account. We see him walking between the tractors after dark and shaking hands with a protester.
A thousand vehicles blocked several streets in Brussels on Thursday around the Twenty-Seven Summit, amid the agricultural world's dissatisfaction with European policies and imports from Ukraine.
“The European Commission must represent the interests of European farmers towards Ukrainians and not the other way around,” reiterated Viktor Orban in a message from his Fidesz party, criticizing “unfair” competition from Ukrainian products.
“The solution to this problem is to replace those responsible in Brussels,” he added during the European elections in June.
The nationalist leader had already estimated earlier this week that the mobilization of farmers showed “how serious the problem of Ukraine is for Europe, regardless of the war.”
“We have to be very careful because Ukraine is a huge country.” And its rapprochement or even entry into the EU “will have huge, catastrophic effects on European economies, especially in the agricultural sector,” he said in an interview with the weekly Le Point.
Last week, a Hungarian government-linked think tank Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) said it was “proud to be involved in organizing a farmers' demonstration in front of the European Parliament.”
The Hungarian leader, the only one of the Twenty-Seven to maintain close ties with Moscow after launching the invasion of Ukraine nearly two years ago, has been blocking essential financial support for Ukraine since December.
The outcome of Thursday's meeting seems very uncertain as negotiations between the EU and Budapest have so far failed to reach an agreement.