The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned the Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán’s recent meeting and handshake with Vladimir Putin.
“In the situation we are in with Russia, we should not use these bilateral contacts to negotiate things about ourselves that would weaken our unity [on Ukraine],” Macron said after a meeting of EU leaders in Brussels.
“Brussels did not invade Hungary,” he said. “Hungary made a sovereign decision to join our Europe … it is a sovereign choice which, afterwards, carries constraints, because we have all decided to delegate sovereignty to our Europe. All of us.”
Macron said no one could prohibit Orbán from doing what he had done, but a meeting with Europe’s foremost enemy should be arranged in consultation with EU member states and leaders.
The French president said he had reproached Orbán in front of other leaders.
“I want to condemn it [the meeting with the Russian president] once again and make it very clear. I can tell you what I said to Viktor Orbán publicly around the table. First of all, I respect all the heads of state and government around the table and they have this sovereignty.
“There’s absolutely no need to prohibit a head of state or government from going in one direction or another. It doesn’t shock us. What I am asking, out of respect and loyalty, is that we coordinate beforehand and coordinate afterwards and that, especially in the situation we are in with Russia, we do not use these bilateral contacts to negotiate things about ourselves that would weaken our unity.”
He was among several leaders who criticised Orbán at a summit in Brussels.
Luxembourg’s outgoing prime minister, Xavier Bettell, said the handshake with Putin was an offence to all those fighting for Ukraine and, by extension, the rest of Europe’s future.
“What Orbán has done with Putin is a middle finger to all soldiers, all Ukrainians that are dying every day and that have to suffer from Russian attacks,” he said.
Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, said: “A leader is sovereign and free to choose his or her discussion partners. But what you need is close coordination, and what we need is transparency. If the content of the discussion affects the European Union, and the unity in the European Union, that was a general message that was sent.”
The Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda, said: “It’s really more than strange to see that we start to flirt with the regime who is committing very cruel atrocities. It sends a very wrong message to anybody.”
