EU agrees plan to unblock €16bn in frozen funds to Hungary

April 12th is a date that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she will fondly remember for a very long time. It’s the day Hungarians voted far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán out of office in parliamentary elections, ending the populist politician’s 16-year stint in power.

EU agrees plan to unblock €16bn in frozen funds to Hungary. April 12th is a date that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said she will fondly remember for a very long time. It’s the day Hungarians voted far-right prime minister Viktor Orbán out of office in parliamentary elections, ending the populist politician’s 16-year stint in power. The Hungarian people “chose to return to the very heart of our union where they belong”, von der Leyen said this week, as she welcomed the new prime minister Péter Magyar to Brussels. During his long stint in power Orbán oversaw a regime that rolled back the rule of law, attacked LGBT+ minorities and migrants, allowed corruption to fester and spread, and frustrated EU efforts to aid Ukraine. There were no tears shed inside the commission’s Berlaymont offices at his defeat. Magyar will reme...