As is the case every year, the most decisive people in Europe chose this year as well POLITICO. The newspaper classifies candidates into three categories: doers, dreamers, and saboteurs – Viktor Orbán fell into the latter category again this year. However, he lost one place, and is no longer considered the second, but the third biggest troublemaker in Europe.
According to Politico’s reasoning, since 2011, Viktor Orban has “undermined the rule of law and media freedom, clashed with European Union institutions, held Brussels hostage with a veto to extract money, and developed a friendly relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”
“Hungary’s strongman is on his way to continuing to act as a spoiler for the EU party.”
Politico also warns that during the 2024 EU presidency, Orban may “overreach” and “use his six-month mandate to support policies that conflict with European values.”
Interestingly, only last year Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni preceded the Hungarian Prime Minister on the list, who changed his career this year and came first in the “Activists” category.
For Viktor Orbán, Elvira Nabiullina, head of the Russian Central Bank, and Carles Puigdemont, the Spanish representative in the European Parliament, have proven more subversive this year. The biggest dreamer was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, and the year’s most influential person was Donald Tusk, former president of the European Council and former prime minister of Poland, who may be the leading force in Poland’s coalition government after the October elections. In this article, we wrote more about how this is not good news for the Hungarian government, as Orbán may lose an important ally in EU affairs.
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