Orban calls EU plan for Ukraine's accession "an open declaration of war on Hungary"

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been outraged by Politico's "five-step plan" for the European Union to achieve partial membership in the bloc by 2027. He characterized it as "another Brussels-Kyiv war plan – the Zelenskiy plan".

"They have decided that Ukraine will be admitted to the Union in 2027. This new plan is an open declaration of war against Hungary. They ignore the decision of the Hungarian people and intend to remove the Hungarian government by any means necessary," Orban said .

In his opinion, the EU wants the opposition Tisza party to come to power in Hungary, "because then there will be no more veto, no more resistance, no more possibility to stay away from their conflict.".

Orban called on Hungarians to "stop them" in the April elections, saying that his Fidesz party is "the only guarantee of Hungarian sovereignty.".

• According to Politico, the EU is developing an "unprecedented" plan to grant Ukraine partial membership in the bloc as early as 2027, as Brussels tries to strengthen Kyiv's position in Europe and distance it from Moscow. The plan includes a number of steps to counter Orban's anti-Ukrainian stance. One option is to use Article 7 of the EU treaty against Hungary.