Rowdy scenes in Strasbourg as von der Leyen rebukes Orbán

Ursula von der Leyen has accused Viktor Orbán of a historic failure to support Ukraine, economic mismanagement and making his country a "back door for foreign interference" in her sharpest public rebuke yet to Hungary's strongman leader.

- Jennifer Rankin

Standing a few metres away from Orbán in the European parliament in Strasbourg, the European Commission president pointedly criticised Orbán's stance on Ukraine by contrasting his record with that of Hungarian freedom fighters of 1956, who rose against Soviet oppression but were defeated by the Red Army.

Without naming Orbán directly, she said: "There are still some who blame this war not on Putin's lust for power but on Ukraine's thirst for freedom, so I want to ask them: would they ever blame the Hungarians for the Soviet invasion in 1956?"

She added: "There is no European language where peace is synonymous with surrender and sovereignty is synonymous with occupation.”

Von der Leyen was speaking after Orbán set out the priorities for Hungary's six-month EU presidency, in an address where he sometimes offered a fairly conventional script calling for less regulation and efforts to bolster the EU's single market.