Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban went to Brussels on Wednesday evening to meet angry farmers, placing himself on the side of "the people" as he faces a front from the other 26 European leaders over aid to Ukraine .
“It is a mistake for Europe not to take the voice of the people seriously,” he said in a video posted on his Facebook account.
We see him walking among the tractors after dark and shaking hands with a demonstrator.
A thousand vehicles block several streets in Brussels on Thursday around a summit of the Twenty-Seven, against a backdrop of discontent from the agricultural world with regard to European policy and imports from Ukraine.
According to him, “the European Commission must represent the interests of European farmers with regard to Ukrainians and not the other way around,” he said, criticizing “unfair” competition from Ukrainian products.
The nationalist leader had already estimated earlier this week that the mobilization of farmers showed “how serious a problem Ukraine is for Europe, regardless of the war”.
“We have to be very careful because Ukraine is a huge country.”
And its rapprochement, or even its accession to the EU, “will have an enormous, disastrous impact on European economies, particularly in the agricultural sector,” he said in an interview with the weekly Le Point.
Last week, a think tank, Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC) linked to the Hungarian government, said it was "proud to be involved" in the organization of a farmers' demonstration in front of the European Parliament.
For Orban, “The solution to this problem is to change those in charge in Brussels” during the European elections in June.