‘Make Europe Great Again’: Hungary set for EU presidency

It wasn’t exactly a surprise when Hungary revealed an official slogan with Trumpian overtones this week for its six-month stint holding the EU presidency, but “Make Europe Great Again” still raised a few eyebrows in Brussels.

Hungary’s ultranationalist, populist prime minister, Viktor Orban, a close ally of former US President Donald Trump, is the most outspoken euroskeptic leader in the European Union.

In the past decade, his government has clashed with EU officials and other member states over domestic democratic backsliding, migration and, most recently, the bloc’s military support for Ukraine.

Budapest has frequently deployed its veto in key votes, stalling policies when all others were ready to proceed. It has had billions of euros of EU funds initially withheld due to democracy and rule of law violations, though some of this has since been released following reforms. And only last week Hungary was fined €200 million ($216 million) for flouting EU asylum law.

Questions about fitness for task
The presidency of the Council of the EU is a six-month rotating position that gets passed between the 27 members states. Given that the presidency’s role is to act as an “honest broker” among the members and rise above national intererest, and that the country holding the presidency is responsible for pushing ahead the bloc’s legislative agenda, the European Parliament had questioned Budapest’s fitness for the task.

Last June, a majority of EU lawmakers passed a resolution asking “how Hungary will be able to credibly fulfill this task in 2024, in view of its non-compliance with EU law.”

But this nonbinding objection never went anywhere.