The V4-+ Austria summit in Budapest

A left-wing analyst thinks PM Orbán has made significant headway in his efforts to counter the mainstream EU leaders in their policies on migration. The leaders of the Visegrád-4 countries met Chancellor Kurz of Austria in Budapest on Thursday and urged the EU to focus on the protection of its external borders rather than on migrant relocation.

In 168 Óra, Mariann Bíró interprets the event as an undeniable success for the Hungarian Prime Minister who ‘managed to pull the Austrian Chancellor onto his side on the migration issue’. Austria is about to take over the presidency of the EU for the second half of the year and its new government has embraced the reticence of the Visegrád countries to host large numbers of migrants. She remarks that although the V4 were not invited by the European Commission to the mini-summit on migration and condemned the fact that such a meeting was convened by Mr Juncker, rather than the European Council, Mr Kurz did not refuse  to participate. All in all, however, Bíró writes, Mr Orbán has still achieved significant international prominence this week, all the more so since Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany invited him to Berlin for the first time in many years in an effort to placate her Christian Social Union allies who are increasingly critical of her record on immigration. The title of his article describes Mr Orbán’s success in diplomacy stating that has has achieved everything ‘short of hosting the Olympics or the Football World Cup’.

Tags: immigration, Orbán, Visegrád 4