On 1 August, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels. This meeting was part of the new president-elect’s discussions with the heads of state and government to establish her team and work programme.
On Twitter, the president-elect reported “good discussions” with the Hungarian, the two officials having notably agreed on the need for a “fresh start” and “pragmatic solutions with regard to migration”. In particular, the leader [Ursula von der Leyen] emphasised that the rule of law was “crucial” and applied “to everyone”.
At the end of the meeting, the Hungarian leader told channel M1 that choosing Mrs von der Leyen was a “good decision” and that it was good to “keep ideological guerrillas out” and choose “pragmatic leaders”.
The Hungarian media reported that Viktor Orbán said of Ursula von der Leyen that her ideas were in line with his own, particularly with regard to family and security and even the development of European defence.
Mina Andreeva, a spokesperson for the institution, indicated that no other meetings with the Juncker Commission were planned at this stage, even though Viktor Orbán lashed out against Jean-Claude Juncker and Manfred Weber for having brought actions against his country on the issue of rule of law. Viktor Orbán clearly supported Mrs von der Leyen with the aim of easing Brussels’ pressure on his country.
During her campaign for election, the German maintained that the Commission would have a strong line on the subject, but it will concern all Member States and not just a few specific countries. “No one is perfect”, she had told several European newspapers after her election. Mrs von der Leyen supports the relationship of conditionality between European funds and respect of the rule of law but has not announced any other mechanisms with new sanctions at this stage.
The Hungarian candidate for the European Commission is current MEP László Trócsányi, the former Minister of Justice. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)