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Speaking to Euronews’ Europe Today, the European Union’s competition chief Teresa Ribera said the defeat of Viktor Orbán after 16 years in office reflected the limits of anti-EU rhetoric, as Hungarians opted for closer ties with Europe in large numbers.
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“Hungarians decided that they wanted to be Europeans, that they wanted to fight for their rights,” she said, describing the result as a decisive and “very clear” call for change.
Orbán, a key ally of US President Donald Trump in Europe, had long positioned himself as a force for disruption within the EU and one of its fiercest critics. Ahead of the vote, US Vice President JD Vance campaigned in favour of Orbán and praised his intellectual contribution to the global conservative movement. That endorsement proved futile.
Ribera told Euronews the result exposed the “limitations and harm” of a heavy-handed US approach to European politics, often bordering on interference. The Trump administration has referred to EU leadership as weak, decaying, and too liberal.
It has also criticised its migration policy and described attempts to regulate digital companies as censorship. In a controversial national security document released last year, the White House vowed to work with political forces resisting the “current trajectory”, warning that the EU faces “civilisational erasure” unless it changes course.
Still, the Hungarian election proved, according to Ribera, that this strategy is flawed. “This narrative against Europe, against working together, can’t win over the medium term,” she said, arguing that public support for the EU is often underestimated.
Ribera doubles down on green agenda, rules out deregulation
As the war in Iran rattles the global energy market, several member states, including Italy, have called on the European Commission to suspend climate policies. Ribera said flexibility is possible but ruled out a permanent rollback of the EU’s green agenda.
Ribera, a vocal climate advocate and former climate minister, insisted that cleaner, homegrown energy is the fastest and safest way for the EU to establish economic security and urged member states to accelerate their green transition plans.
After reports that the Commission is preparing a major overhaul of merger rules to allow for the creation of so-called European champions — a term used to describe large European companies capable of competing at scale with the US and China — Ribera said the new framework will not loosen EU competition rules, akin to deregulation.
“We are entering the last phase to adopt an updated version (of these rules),” she told Euronews’ EU editor Maria Tadeo in an interview on Friday. “We know we need to update our reality to today’s economy, but that doesn’t mean forgetting the core of our mission,”
“We remain committed to protecting consumers and we will not give anyone a blank cheque,” she added.
You can watch the full interview with Teresa Ribera on Euronews and across all social platforms. Europe Today airs at 8am from Brussels Monday to Friday.
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