Orbán fears Ukraine's EU accession due to further US influence – media

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán revealed the real reason for his opposition to Ukraine's EU membership at a private meeting with Hungarian MPs in March 2023: fear of US influence.

Source: Direkt36, an independent Hungarian investigative journalism project, as reported by European Pravda

Details: On 20 March 2023, Orbán was discussing Ukraine's European integration at the so-called EU Grand Council, a Hungarian parliamentary forum convened ahead of European Council summits and attended by senior parliamentary officials, including some from the opposition.

According to Direkt36's sources, Orbán then said that Ukraine's accession would create a new "centre of power" in the EU, dominated by the United States and including the Baltic states, Poland and, to a lesser extent, Romania. 

Quote: "Let's look at Belarus; there may still be one or two colour revolutions there."

Orbán explained at length to those present at the EU Grand Council that this new "centre of power" would threaten the influence of the traditional EU heavyweights, France and Germany. He admitted that he had shared these concerns with Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz and proposed an alternative – a union of Paris and Berlin with the Visegrád Group – but they had apparently not accepted it.

Orbán's speech also made it clear that this redistribution of power in the EU worries him, as it interferes with his strategic vision of shifting the centre of the world economy to Asia. He listed the countries with which Hungary wants to strengthen relations – primarily China and India and, after the war, Russia.

Finally, the Hungarian PM said he did not think it was right that "the Americans are dealing with this by splitting the world economy in two", and that instead, "we should be able to develop all kinds of relations with everyone according to our own interests".

Background:

• According to Hungarian media reports, Orbán acknowledged at the same EU Grand Council meeting that Budapest would not be able to prevent Ukraine from joining the EU.
• Earlier, the Hungarian PM had lamented that if Ukraine joined the EU, all Central European support – including that allocated to Hungary – would go to Kyiv.

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