Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has shocked Brussels again, and this time, he was vocal about supporting Serbia regarding its EU bid probably because he is looking for allies in Serbia and trying to get closer to the Hungarians living here.
“The Viktator”, as some media call him, a political villain who angers Europe with his attitudes towards LGBT people and migrants, paid for an ad in the Croatian newspaper Vecernji List titled “On the future of the European Union”. In it, he listed seven proposals that would improve the EU, and the last one concerns, no more and no less, Serbia: “Serbia should be accepted into the European Union,” he writes in the ad.
Croatia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs reacted immediately, stating that it did not share the views of this announcement. “As far as the EU enlargement process is concerned, Croatia insists on enlargement based on consistent fulfilment of the accession criteria, implementation of the necessary reforms and achievement of measurable results. This applies to all candidate countries, including Serbia,” the Ministry said.
Orban’s ad attracted a lot of attention because it is a kind of precedent, and so far, because no prime minister in the EU has ever done such a thing. Moreover, the question arises, why is Serbia mentioned in all this?
Serbia has had good relations with Hungary, and Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić and Orban met up to eight times from May to August last year. Orban can ask the EU to accept Serbia as a member whenever he wants, but the question is how much this actually helps Serbia, considering Orban’s reputation in Brussels.
Orbán made an unusual move after the EU summit and a dinner that, according to the media, lasted until two o’clock in the morning, during which there was even talk of expelling Hungary from the EU when someone publicly expressed a desire for “Hungary to be brought to its knees”.
For the umpteenth time, Orban infuriated Brussels with a law banning homosexuality among minors, which the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Layen, called “shameful”.
(Blic, 01.07.2021)
This post is also available in: Italiano