Don’t overstate Orbán’s exit, De Wever warns

Ayia Napa, CYPRUS – EU leaders meeting at a Mediterranean marina resort on Thursday welcomed the exit of Hungary’s Viktor Orbán – but Belgium’s Bart De Wever warned them that divisions remain.

Orbán – long a disruptive force in European decision-making – was notably absent, after losing recent elections, as the EU gathered for their first summit since his government was voted out earlier this month.

The meeting came just hours after EU envoys finally signed off on the bloc’s 20th sanctions package against Russia, alongside a €90 billion support facility for Ukraine, both measures that Budapest, alongside Bratislava, had stalled since February.

With the political deadlock now broken, the mood among leaders shifted noticeably. According to Gitanas Nausėda, Lithuanian President, now “twenty-six countries will not be taken as a hostage of one country”.

Yet not everyone in Ayia Napa was wearing rosy spectacles or ready to declare a bright new era of seamless…