Macron's Hungary trip highlights EU rift over liberal values

French President Emmanuel Macron is in Hungary’s capital for talks with the leaders of the European Union’s eastern member nations

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French President Emmanuel Macron traveled to Hungary's capital on Monday for talks with the leaders of the European Union's eastern member nations, discussions likely to highlight political rifts over the scope of the EU's authority and the bloc's future course.

Macron was set to have a bilateral meeting in Budapest with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a right-wing populist who has challenged the EU's values and its jurisdiction over the affairs of the 27 member nations.

Orban and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki with whom Macron also plans to meet, have been engaged in a conflict with Brussels over the EU's attempts to rein in governments seen as violating rule of law and democratic standards.

The EU's executive arm has withheld tens of billions of dollars in COVID-19 economic recovery funds from Poland and Hungary about corruption, judicial interference and media control. The EU has threatened to impose additional sanctions if the countries fail to live up to rule of law requirements.

France is set to take over the EU rotating 6-month presidency on Jan. 1. Macron also has meetings scheduled with Hungarian President Janos Ader and Slovakia’s prime minister, Eduard Heger. The French leader also plans to take part in a summit of the leaders of the Visegrad 4 group of countries: Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Macron’s trip, the first visit to Hungary by a sitting French president since 2007, comes ahead of an EU summit set for later this week.

Macron, a centrist who is staunchly pro-EU, also plans to meet Monday with Budapest’s liberal mayor, Gergely Karacsony, and with Peter Marki-Zay, an opposition candidate planning to challenge Orban for the post of prime minister during Hungary's general election in the spring.

Macron also plans to visit the grave of Hungarian philosopher and Orban critic Agnes Heller.

Macron is likely to seek a second term in France's presidential election next year. Among his chief challengers at this point are two hard-right nationalists, journalist Eric Zemmour and Marine Le Pen, who have both met in recent months with Orban and embrace many of his policies.

Orban has been working to consolidate the European right, including politicians and parties that share his anti-immigration views and opposition to the EU exercising certain legal powers over the bloc’s national governments.

Macron, who has shifted to the right on security and migration issues since he first became France's president in 2017, said at a news conference last week that he considered Orban “a political opponent” but also a “European partner around the table” with whom it is important to "work together for our Europe.”

“There can be deep disagreements, and there are some. But our duty in the coming months is to allow Europe, on the agenda I mentioned, to continue to move forward,” Macron said. "It is very clear that on the subject of the rule of law, there will be disagreements.”

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Corbet reported from Paris.