Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban “does not represent” the European Union on his visit to Georgia, where the ruling party was declared winner of disputed elections, the bloc’s foreign affairs chief said on Monday.
Orban, who currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency and is the Kremlin’s closest EU ally, is due in Georgia on Monday in a show of support to the ruling party, which has been accused of leaning toward Russia.
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“Whatever Mr Orban says in his visit to Georgia, he does not represent the European Union,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told Spanish public radio RNE.
“The union’s rotating president has no authority in foreign policy.”
Georgia braced for protests on Monday, after the pro-EU opposition called for mass demonstrations, accusing the ruling party of “stealing” this weekend’s parliamentary election in what the Caucasus country’s president called a “Russian special operation.”
Orban has previously ruffled EU feathers with his divisive trips.
Brussels severely criticised a July visit to Moscow where he met Russian President Vladimir Putin for a “peace mission” to discuss ending the war in Ukraine.