Hungary has denounced an upcoming vote in the European Parliament on concerns about its presidency as an "anti-Hungarian initiative". The EU Council presidency next year is "not a right, but a duty," said Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga on Friday on Facebook. "What we promised, we will fulfill with integrity, no one can take that away from us," Varga explained.

The motion for a resolution tabled by the largest political groups in the European Parliament calls into question Hungary's planned assumption of the EU Council presidency in 2024 due to persistent violations of the rule of law. According to the report, MEPs from the conservative EPP group, the Socialists and Democrats S&D, the liberal Renew Europe group, the Greens and the Left doubt that Hungary will be able to "credibly fulfil this task in 2024" as the country "does not comply with EU law and EU values".

According to the report, member states should "find an appropriate solution as soon as possible" to prevent Hungary from taking over the six-month presidency of the Council as planned from July 2024. The vote is scheduled for 1 June.

German MEP Daniel Freund (Greens) said on Twitter that Orban did not deserve "this stage". If you leave the presidency of the Council to him while war is raging in Ukraine, "if you basically leave the presidency to Putin's best friend," then there is "a security risk for the EU," said Freund, who is considered one of Orban's sharpest critics in the EU Parliament.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, had earlier said that there was "no legal way for the EU" to prevent Hungary from taking over the presidency. "If the European Parliament makes such a decision, it is just as binding as if the Azerbaijani parliament were to make such a decision," Gulyas told journalists in Budapest.

Orban is at loggerheads with other EU members over the Ukraine war and has blocked EU aid to Kyiv. Despite all the criticism from EU and NATO partners, the Hungarian head of government continues to maintain close relations with Moscow.

In December, the European Commission froze almost 22 billion euros for Hungary from the EU structural funds for the period from 2021 to 2027. The reason given was that Budapest did not meet the EU's requirements in terms of the rule of law.