EU, the rotating presidency goes to Orbán. On the vote, von der Leyen sees the Greens

“Now it’s Hungary’s turn and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán,” Belgian Prime Minister De Croo posted yesterday afternoon on X, handing over the baton of the EU presidency to Budapest. He closed the post with the usual good wishes, but added a sentence that speaks volumes about his fears for the next six months: “I trust that you will work in the interests of all EU citizens.”
Yesterday, Orbán was in Brussels for the handover ceremony, which he described on X as “very joyful”: “Everyone is very happy that it is our turn to make Europe great again!” Not exactly everyone.

The illiberal democracy of Orbán, his ties to the Kremlin and Beijing raise many doubts in most capitals. A few months ago, the hypothesis circulated, shelved, of not allowing Budapest to lead the EU for the next six months. And at the end of January, the countries’ irritation over Orbán’s persistent veto on the 50 billion euro financial aid package for Ukraine led to the threat of applying the famous Article 7 of the Treaty.to strip Hungary of its right to vote in the Council for systematic violation of fundamental values. As the presidency approaches, Budapest has become cooperative, in its own way. “We will act as impartial mediators,” promised European Affairs Minister Janos Boka, adding that “at the same time Hungary will use the light to put forward its ‘vision of Europe’ and steer it in the right direction.” One of the priorities of the presidency is to restore competitiveness to the EU. Orbán went on the offensive in the Financial Times: “This decline can be attributed mainly to the wrong decisions of Brussels that go against the realities of the world economy.”

Fears about the Hungarian presidency have been scaled down. The reflection in Brussels is that the timing could not have been better because there will be no relevant legislative proposals, the next few months will be taken up by the formation of the new community executive. The visit of the College of Commissioners has been postponed to September. In the coming days, von der Leyen will be busy negotiating to secure the necessary 361 votes for his re-election by the European Parliament.

The president will think about forming the team only after July 18, that is, after the vote even if the portfolios are part of the negotiations. But the strategy is not to promise anything certain in order to maintain a negotiating lever. In the meantime, meetings with the groups are proceeding. Yesterday von der Leyen met Bas Eickhout, co-leader of the Greens: on the table was “a stable and democratic majority” and “no negotiations or reliance on the far right, including the ECR”. This morning at 10 am he will participate in the conference of presidents, even if not all the groups are formed yet: the constituent meeting of the ECR is scheduled for Wednesday (what will the Pis do?) but it could be postponed and that of ID has been moved to July 8, after the second round of the French elections.