Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban went to Brussels on Wednesday night to meet angry farmers, siding with the people as he clashes with the other 26 European leaders over aid to Ukraine.
“It is Europe’s mistake not to take the voice of the people seriously”, he says in a video he posted on his Facebook account.
In the images, he can be seen walking between the tractors after nightfall and shaking the hand of a protester.
A thousand tractors and other agricultural machinery blocked Brussels streets around the site of the EU Summit today, amid anger from farmers over European politics and imports from Ukraine.
“The European Commission must represent the interests of European farmers the Ukrainians and not the other way around”, Viktor Orbán repeated in a message broadcast by his party, Fidesz, in which he attacked the “unfair” competition of Ukrainian products.
Back in #Brussels. We will stand up for the voice of the people! Even if the bureaucrats in Brussels blackmail us. #FarmerProtests pic.twitter.com/9Zws6ek9Hc
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) January 31, 2024
“The solution to this problem is to change the officials in Brussels”, he added on the occasion of the European elections in June.
The Hungarian leader had already stated earlier this week that the mobilization of farmers shows “to what extent Ukr
“We have to be very prudent because Ukraine is a huge country”. And its approach to the EU, and indeed its accession, “will have a huge impact, devastating for the European economies, especially in the agricultural sector”, he said in an interview with Le Point magazine.
Last week, the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), a think tank linked to the Hungarian government, said it was “proud to participate” in organizing a farmers’ demonstration in front of the European Parliament.
The Hungarian leader, the only one among the Twenty-Seven to maintain close relations with Moscow after the start of the invasion of Ukraine two years ago, has since December blocked economic aid essential to that country.
