Budapest – French President Emmanuel Macron will visit Hungary on Monday, where he will meet Prime Minister Viktor Orban, on his latest visit to a European Union country as part of a tour that began at the beginning of his term.
Macron “will participate in a summit with the prime ministers of the Visegrad countries”, which includes four central European states (Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary), told Agence France-Presse a spokesman for the head of the Hungarian government.
The travel program also includes “a bilateral meeting with President Janos Ader and then with Viktor Orban”, added spokesman Bertalan Havasi.
The French head of state should discuss with the leaders of the four countries the priorities of the presidency of the European Union (EU), which France will ensure from January 1st for six months, said the Eliseu when confirming the visit.
This presidency will coincide with the campaign for the April presidential and June legislative campaigns in France.
With this visit, the first by the French head of State to Hungary since Nicolas Sarkozy’s in 2007, Emmanuel Macron ends his visits to the 26 European capitals of the EU that he promised to make during his five-year term, which underwent several changes due to to the covid-19 pandemic.
According to the Elisha, “several priority issues for the coming months at European level will be analyzed, in particular the climate and digital transitions, the strengthening of the defense Europe, the development of a social Europe and the European management of asylum and migration”.
Emmanuel Macron “will also address European demands in terms of the rule of law and respect for European values”, when Hungary remains in conflict with Brussels over a series of reforms related to justice, the media, refugees, NGOs and minorities, themes on which the two leaders also diverge.
Macron is yet to meet “representatives of the Hungarian opposition political parties and will pay tribute to the philosopher Agnes Heller,” added the Elisha.
This former Hungarian dissident, who died in 2019 at the age of 90, has become an intellectual opposition figure to Viktor Orban, whose government has carried out several campaigns aimed at denigrating its positions and public interventions.
Source: Angola Press News Agency