The EU still has an Orbán problem

“There’s a man — Viktor Orbán — did anyone ever hear of him?” Donald Trump asked in one of his recent rallies, referring to the Hungarian prime minister. “He’s probably . . . one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He’s the leader of Turkey.”

Trump’s slip of the tongue attracted ridicule, but in a curious way he was right. The Hungarian leader’s ambitions go far beyond ruling a country of 10mn people. Orbán wants to be the leader of a new Europe. And this desire was on full display in Brussels on Thursday night and in the early hours of Friday.

In the run-up to the latest summit of EU leaders this week, there was a growing concern that Orbán would veto the opening of accession negotiations with Ukraine, while agreeing to endorse the EU budget, which included a €50bn aid package for Kyiv. In the end, it worked the other way round.