In Brussels on Friday Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told journalists that Manfred Weber and Frans Timmermans have failed in their bids to become President of the European Commission. He described this as good news for Hungary, because the Hungarian people did not want them.
Speaking about the EU summit which began on Thursday, the Prime Minister said that “we’ve taken important steps forward”.
He pointed out that in the European Parliament election in Hungary the Government had received strong support of 53 per cent, which he said is “unprecedented, and almost no one in Europe has that kind of support”. He had therefore made ambitious commitments, he said, citing as an example his statement that with this support he would be able to prevent the European Union from electing leaders who support immigration. He added that he had also undertaken to ensure that the EU would not have leaders who “don’t give Hungary and the Central European countries the respect they deserve”.
He stressed that he had successfully delivered on these two undertakings on Thursday, as “the lead candidates – Mr. Weber and Mr. Timmermans – fell”, because they did not meet either of the two requirements he had laid out. He declared that “their departure is good news for Hungary.”