Orban Postpones EU Appearance Due To Storm

Budapest, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 16th Sep, 2024) Hungarian premier Viktor Orban on Monday said he would postpone all of his "international obligations", including his appearance at the European Parliament, as Storm Boris batters central and eastern Europe.

The nationalist prime minister was supposed to speak at a Wednesday debate on his country's ongoing six-month rotating EU Presidency, embroiled in controversy.

Meetings organised in Hungary face an unofficial boycott by EU institutions and some member states, as Orban enraged fellow leaders by jetting to Moscow mere days after Budapest took on the bloc's presidency.

"Due to the extreme weather conditions and the ongoing floods... I have postponed all my international obligations," Orban said on X, formerly Twitter.

In a Facebook video, he said he would not leave the country until authorities "get through the worst".

Hungary's General Directorate of Water Management predicted that the river Danube will reach its peak in Budapest at the end of this week.

European Parliament President Robert Metsola spoke with Viktor Orban to express her support "for all those affected" by the extreme weather conditions, according to a statement by the European Parliament.

She agreed to "liaise with the Political Groups for the debate... to be postponed to a later sitting", the statement added.

There was some domestic pressure for Orban to stay after opposition leader Peter Magyar urged him on Sunday to reschedule his EP visit and personally supervise flood protection.

Manfred Weber, president of the conservative European People's Party (EPP), the largest group in the parliament, also backed Magyar's call.

Orban -- long a thorn in the EU's side for his government's backsliding on democratic principles and rule of law -- remains defiantly close with the Kremlin more than two years after Putin ordered his all-out invasion of Ukraine.

The EU has staunchly opposed Russia's war, and slapped 14 rounds of unprecedented sanctions on Moscow.

But Hungary has repeatedly stalled the efforts to punish the Kremlin and to aid Ukraine in its fight against the invading forces.