Ursula von der Leyen, António Costa and Kaja Kallas endorsed as EU leaders – as it happened

Italian PM Giorgia Meloni abstains on von der Leyen and votes against Kallas and Costa

Daniel Freund, a German Green MEP, has sent a letter with 20,000 signatures to the European Council president calling for the upcoming Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU to be suspended.

Together with 20.000 citizens, we, the undersigned Members of the European Parliament, ask you to officially suspend the Hungarian Presidency of the Council, which is currently set to begin on July 1st, 2024," he wrote.

It would be extremely harmful for the reputation of our Union, if the current Hungarian government would represent us Europeans in any capacity, just after the European elections. The EU has officially frozen funds under the Rule of Law Conditionality Mechanism due to the high levels of corruption in Hungary. Over the years, the Orban government has also undermined their elections, the Rule of Law, and media freedom in Hungary.

On the European level, the Orban government has compared the European Union with a dictatorship. They published posters across the country with bombs bearing the EU flag, when sanctions against Russia were passed. At the time when imperialist dictator Putin is bombing Ukraine, an EU candidate country, Orban went out of his way to China just to be able to shake hands with him.