BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are holding a summit in Brussels on Thursday without Hungarian politician Viktor Orbán for the first time in 16 years. Prime ministers, chancellors and presidents have come and gone, but Orbán has been a stable fixture in Brussels’ halls of power, piloting Europe’s drift to the right and pioneering a brand of nationalist populism that has found growing success on the continent and is idolized by the Make America Great Again movement in the U.S. Orbán, who is now Hungary’s leading opposition figure, had repeatedly clashed with the EU as he vilified its institutions and leaders and broke regulations as he hollowed out institutional checks and balances in Hungary.Long a foil to EU ambitions in Ukraine and beyond, the former Hungarian prime minister, who lost a pivotal election in April, is now sitting on the sidelines for the first time in a generation — and watching as his successor Péter Magyar joins leaders including Spain’s Pedro Sanchez, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz as they advance policies likely at odds with Orbán’s vision.
As the EU summit opened to discuss ramping up support for Ukraine, among other things, Orbán was surrounded by his far-right allies from his new position outside the halls of power he once roamed.Orbán was in the Belgian capital to take part in a Thursday summit of his Patriots for Europe party group, a collection of far-right parties from across the bloc that forms the third-largest caucus in the European Parliament.
