After a meeting in Budapest this Monday (13), the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, and the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, publicly highlighted the points of agreement between the two countries regarding the strategic autonomy of the European Union .
“We support a common European policy for defense capabilities, nuclear energy and a strong agricultural sector,” Orbán said at a news conference shortly after the meeting.
The two leaders have differences over key issues such as immigration policies and LGBT rights, as well as the European Commission’s criticism of Orbán’s concentration of power, which is said to be undermining democracy in Hungary.
Just before the meeting, Macron had said he wanted to work with Orbán “despite the differences, for broader European cooperation.” Last week, he said that the Hungarian leader was a political opponent, but also a European partner with whom an agreement could be reached.
In a video posted on his Facebook page before the meeting, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also characterized the two European Union countries as partners and opponents.
“The two countries agree on the importance of protecting the (EU’s) external borders,” Szijjarto said, days after Macron said protecting and controlling the bloc’s borders was one of France’s main goals during his six-month presidency of the EU, started in January.
On Macron’s agenda in the country, a visit to the grave of Hungarian philosopher Agnes Heller, Holocaust survivor and opponent of Orbán, whom he accused of undermining democracy, is scheduled.
Macron is also expected to attend a meeting of the Visegrad group, which includes leaders from Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and meet with politicians from the opposition alliance that will challenge Orbán in next year’s elections.
Orbán has hosted ultra-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour in the past two months, who are candidates for next year’s French presidential election, in which Macron is expected to seek a second term.
Both praised the Hungarian’s opposition to immigration, and Zemmour complimented him on his defense of “his country’s identity, sovereignty and borders”.
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