Don’t overestimate Orbán’s departure, warns De Wever

Ayia Napa, CYPRUS – EU leaders meeting at a Mediterranean marina resort on Thursday welcomed the departure of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán – but Belgium’s Bart De Wever warned them that divisions remain.

Orbán – long a disruptive force in European decision-making – was conspicuously absent, after losing the last election, as the EU gathered for their first summit since his government was voted out earlier this month.

The meeting came just hours after EU envoys finally signed on the bloc’s 20th package of sanctions against Russia, along with a €90 billion bailout for Ukraine, both measures that Budapest, along with Bratislava, had stalled since February.

With the political deadlock now broken, the mood among the leaders changed markedly. According to Gitanas Nauseda, president of Lithuania, now “twenty-six countries will not be taken hostage by one country”.

However, not everyone in Ayia Napa was wearing rose-colored glasses or ready to herald a bright new era of uninterrupted unity.

De Wever, the Belgian prime minister, struck a more cautious note, stressing that Orbán’s departure does not erase the deepest fractures within the bloc – it only removes its most visible rupture.

“I think it’s a bit overrated anyway,” he said on the sidelines of the summit. While admitting that “things will go a bit better now”, he warned that Orbán had never been completely isolated. “There are other countries in Europe with leaders who don’t always go with the consensus of Europe, especially when it comes to Russia,” he added.

Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen echoed De Wever’s caution. “This does not mean that all problems have been solved. There are other governments that look at the security policy situation differently than we do from the Danish side.”

“But all other things being equal, it is now easier to gain common ground in Europe. And this is a prerequisite for Europe to be strong,” she added.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, present at the summit in Cyprus, did not mourn Orban, who called Ukraine an “enemy” during the election campaign.

“You can’t breed hatred against your neighbors, not just your neighbors, but everybody,” he said. “It’s a mistake. And we see the result.”

At the same time, he extended an olive branch to Hungary’s incoming government and Prime Minister-elect Péter Magyar, signaling Kiev’s willingness to restore relations.

“We are willing to work together, side by side, to help each other,” he said, adding that he hopes Budapest “will be very open to us.”

(w)