Orbán to skip his last EU summit after bruising electoral defeat

Outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán will not attend next week’s informal summit of European Union leaders, according to several EU officials. It would have been his last summit as Hungarian prime minister in what is usually a customary farewell.

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Orbán, who was decisively defeated in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, is expected to remain in office until opposition leader Péter Magyar, who won by a landslide, takes office sometime in May.

Officials familiar with the preparations told Euronews they no longer expect Orbán to participate in the gathering, which will take place in Nicosia, Cyprus.

The tradition in Brussels states that departing leaders get a farewell by their peers and a goodbye token when they attend their last summit as a gesture of appreciation.

It was not immediately clear if Orbán will be represented by another leader. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, an ideological ally, has previously stepped in for the Hungarian.

Until his defeat on Sunday, Orbán was by far the longest-serving member of the European Council, having participated in numerous meetings since taking office in 2010.

His decision to skip the gathering in Cyprus means that his last summit was the one in March, where he was harshly criticised for vetoing the €90 billion loan for Ukraine.

António Costa, the usually mild-mannered president of the European Council, slammed Orbán for his “unacceptable” decision to backtrack on the agreement reached by the 27 leaders in December. Back then, Orbán negotiated an opt-out from the joint borrowing.

His veto was linked to the interruption of the oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.

“The leaders took the floor to condemn the attitude from Viktor Orbán, to remember that a deal is a deal and all the leaders need to honour that word,” Costa said, venting months of frustration over the Hungarian’s antics. “Nobody can blackmail the European Council. Nobody can blackmail the European Union institutions.”

Magyar has called on Orbán to lift the veto before vacating his office.

This story has been updated with additional reporting.