Hungary’s Orban Gets a Hostile Reception at European Parliament

Some progressive members sang “Bella Ciao,” a song associated with antifascism, to show opposition to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who’s been accused of authoritarianism at home.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary, a hard-line champion of “illiberal democracy,” has for years taken swipes at the European Union and its officials.

On Wednesday, some in the European Parliament fired back — in song. After Mr. Orban finished his speech at the assembly in Strasbourg, France, progressive members started singing “Bella Ciao,” an Italian antifascist resistance song from the World War II-era.

Their singing, which lasted for less than a minute, was shut down by the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, as conservative members more politically in tune with Mr. Orban chanted slogans supporting him.

“This is not the Eurovision,” Ms. Metsola told the chamber, referring to the annual song contest. “Let’s respect the dignity of this house.”

The European Union — which Hungary joined in 2004 — has long been at odds with Mr. Orban for his right-wing nationalist stance on minority rights, immigration, the rule of law and other issues, including what Brussels sees as his sympathies for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia. Mr. Orban is also the fiercest critic-from-within of the E.U.’s staunch backing of Ukraine, and an ally of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

Mr. Orban has often accused the E.U. of meddling in Hungary’s internal politics and promoting liberal values that he says differ from his country’s traditional, conservative ones.

Relations between the bloc and Hungary, which on July 1 took on the six-month rotating E.U. presidency, a largely administrative role, have turned frostier in recent months.

Since assuming the presidency, Mr. Orban has visited Mr. Putin in Moscow and also went to Beijing for previously unannounced talks with China’s leader, Xi Jinping, prompting concerns that he was courting authoritarian leaders at odds with E.U. values.

In July, he went to the Mar-a-Lago home of Mr. Trump, who has made no secret of his admiration for Mr. Orban and has often cited him as an example of his support among world leaders. During the presidential debate last month, Mr. Trump called Mr. Orban “one of the most respected men.”

All that helped create a hostile atmosphere when Mr. Orban appeared in Parliament.

“You are not welcome here,” Terry Reintke, the co-leader of the Greens Party in the European Parliament, told Mr. Orban. “This is the house of European democracy.”

Mr. Orban has also sometimes complicated E.U. diplomacy on Ukraine. Hungary has blocked changes in sanction rules requested by Washington as the price for the United States joining an effort to loan $50 billion to Ukraine, but the European Union is moving forward.

On Wednesday evening, E.U. member states decided to move ahead with a $39 billion loan to Ukraine, which would be repaid using interest earned on some $300 billion of Russian assets that were frozen in 2022. Hungary did not raise any objections to the loan, according to a European diplomat. The proposal will be voted on by the European Parliament later this month.

In his speech to the Parliament on Wednesday, Mr. Orban said that E.U. policy needed to change and said that a failure to control the entry of migrants to the bloc could cause Europe’s internal system of border-free travel to “fall apart.”

At a nearly two-hour news conference on Tuesday, he said that there was no way Ukraine could win on the battlefield and that E.U. leaders should support a negotiated end to the war.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, speaking to the European Parliament after Mr. Orban, said the E.U. would back Ukraine as long as it takes.

“We Europeans may have different histories and different languages, but there is no European language in which peace is synonymous with surrender,” she said.

Ms. Von der Leyen said that a decision by Hungary to ease visa restrictions for Russian nationals without additional security checks, and another to allow Chinese police to operate within Hungary, had turned it into “a backdoor for foreign interference.”

Mr. Orban reiterated his support for Mr. Trump on Tuesday, the same day that a new book by the famed journalist Bob Woodward alleged that the former U.S. president had remained in contact with Mr. Putin even after leaving office. “We will open several bottles of Champagne if Trump is back,” Mr. Orban said at a news conference, showing no qualms about wading into the U.S. election.

On Wednesday, Mr. Orban concluded his speech with a call to “make Europe great again.”

“Bella Ciao,” or “Goodbye, Beautiful,” was originally written about women who worked in rice paddies in northern Italy, and later adapted for the Italian resistance movement in the 1940s, according to the book “Songs That Made History Around the World.”

(The last time European Parliament members broke out into song was in January 2020, when they sang “Auld Lang Syne” after backing the terms of the agreement on Britain’s departure from the bloc.)

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

• Russian Spies in Europe: The head of MI5, Britain’s domestic security service, said Russian intelligence agents are on a mission “to generate mayhem on British and European streets.”
• Dogs Offer Comfort in Ukraine: Dog ownership has surged over the past two years as people seek companionship. In Kyiv, Yorkies, poodles and bichons frisés now rule the streets.
• The War’s Overlooked Victims: The daunting health challenges facing sick and disabled children in Ukraine are a cruel reminder that the war’s tentacles stretch far beyond the front line.

How We Verify Our Reporting

• Our team of visual journalists analyzes satellite images, photographs, videos and radio transmissions to independently confirm troop movements and other details.
• We monitor and authenticate reports on social media, corroborating these with eyewitness accounts and interviews. Read more about our reporting efforts.