Viktor Orban has once again taken his European counterparts by surprise. While the Twenty-Seven were wondering about the result of the elections organized in Georgia on Saturday, October 26, the head of the illiberal Hungarian government greeted, that same afternoon, “the overwhelming victory” of Georgian Dream, the pro-Russian ruling party, won 54% of the vote. He then traveled to Tbilisi on Monday to support the authorities.
“I congratulate you for voting for peace” and of “not having allowed his country to become a second Ukraine”Orban launched, before continuing: “When the liberals win”Brussels “He says it is democratic. “When it’s the conservatives, it’s not.” On Tuesday, the president of Georgia, Salomé Zourabichvili, who has become one of the figures of the anti-government protest, asked the international community to investigate the results of the legislative elections, while the electoral commission, controlled by the government, announced recounts . in just 14% of the electoral colleges.
With this improvised trip, comparable to those made in Moscow and kyiv when his country assumed the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (EU) for six months at the beginning of July, the Hungarian Prime Minister highlighted above all the shame and the divisions aroused within the Twenty-Seven by the situation in Georgia, a Caucasian State whose accession process to the EU has already been suspended since the summer due to an illiberal drift.
“Electoral irregularities”
Viktor Orban’s comments contrast with doubts expressed elsewhere on the continent about the sincerity of the vote. In Brussels, the Commission and the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, pointed out the “irregularities”in a joint press release published Sunday, and are awaiting the results of ongoing investigations. “Georgians have a right to know what happened this weekend. “They have the right to demand that electoral irregularities be investigated promptly, transparently and independently.”added Ursula von der Leyen, president of the Commission, on Monday during a speech at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium.
In this context, Anna Lührmann, German Secretary of State responsible for European Affairs, wanted since Monday to gather her counterparts around a joint statement, so as not to leave the field open to Viktor Orban. Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the EU council until the end of the year, but the Hungarian prime minister “Do not speak on behalf of the EU”reads this text, supported – as of Tuesday afternoon – by fifteen Member States, including France, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, the Baltic States, the Scandinavian States and the Czech Republic. The signatories “criticize Prime Minister Orban’s premature visit to Georgia.”
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