Steven N.
Népszava has learned that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is visiting Paris on Saturday, January 29, following his meeting with populist party leaders in Madrid on Friday and Saturday.
The Prime Minister will take a special flight to the French capital for a “private visit,” then return home on Sunday, the Hungarian daily reported. On Tuesday, Orbán is scheduled to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
On Friday morning, the Prime Minister stated on Kossuth Radio that he would be discussing the security situation in Europe with EU and NATO leaders prior to his trip to Moscow, but he did not provide any details.
Orbán’s visit to Paris could possibly be a part of these consultations, considering that France took over the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union at the beginning of the year.
MEP Nathalie Loiseau, a member of French President Emmanuel Macron’s party LREM and the chair of the Subcommittee on Security and Defense in the European Parliament, spoke to Euronews on Thursday about Viktor Orbán’s upcoming visit to Moscow. As she stated:
I sincerely hope he is aware of what is at stake, and that he maintains the EU’s message of unity.
While Bertalan Havasi, the head of the Prime Minister’s Press Office, announced on Tuesday that Viktor Orbán would be traveling to Madrid to meet with the leaders of European populist parties, nothing was said about the detour to the French capital. Népszava inquired about Orbán’s trip to Paris, but apparently did not receive an answer from Havasi’s office.
Also present at the Madrid event this weekend was Marine Le Pen, chair of France’s far-right National Rally and the strongest challenger to President Macron in this April’s French presidential election.
[Népszava][Photo: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris in 2019]
