Bloc braces as populist takes Orbán charge of EU agenda

For months, it was rumoured that Hungary planned to use a reworked version of Donald Trump's slogan for its upcoming EU presidency: Make Europe Great Again.

-  Jennifer Rankin

That idea "sounded so lame and ridiculous that we refrained from reporting it", Szabolcs Panyi, one of Hungary's leading investigative journalists, wrote on X last month. "We were wrong."

On Monday, under that Trumpian banner, Hungary took on the sixmonth rotating presidency of the EU council of ministers. As well as a spell in the diplomatic limelight, Viktor Orbán's government will be setting the EU agenda for the rest of the year.

EU diplomats are downbeat, but resigned to Hungary's six months in charge. Since Orbán returned to power in 2010, going on to win four consecutive terms, democratic values, the rule of law and press freedom in Hungary have withered, according to numerous independent bodies.

The Hungarian government, a long-term spoiler of EU decisions, has become an even more difficult partner since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. "I think [the Hungarian presidency] is a fiasco for the European Union," said the French Green MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield, who is standing down from the European parliament after five years as its lead on Hungary and the rule of law.