Orbán’s unexpected praise for France’s new interior minister raises eyebrows

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán praised France’s newly-appointed Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau’s recent stances on migration policy at a press conference on Tuesday (8 October) in an unforeseen move that may end up embarrassing the Frenchman.

As Orbán was criticising the European Commission’s track record on migration and calling for the immediate implementation of asylum ‘hotspots’ outside of the EU, he unexpectedly expressed approval of Bruno Retailleau.

“I have a lot of respect for him," he said.

The flirty wink was such a surprise that it could almost have slipped by. But the French interior minister's “efforts” to influence migration policy at the EU level have surely not gone unnoticed by Orbán.

Speaking at an unrecorded press conference in Strasbourg, the prime minister deplored that the EU “do[esn't] have a common successful migration policy," forcing member states like Austria, Germany, Sweden –  and France – to take individual measures.

In Paris, Bruno Retailleau has recently adopted a tough stance on immigration and vowed to take on the fight in Brussels.

He is expected to attend a Justice and Home Affairs Council on Thursday (10 October), during which he will push for an “ambitious and speedy” review of the Return Directive, his cabinet told Euractiv.

The cabinet did not react to Orbán’s praise.

But having the support of a pro-Putin prime minister, often described as an autocrat, is hardly good news for Retailleau.

“Bruno Retailleau, you have the friendship of the worst European autocrat. The very one who taught you to despise the rule of law!” French S&D MEP Chloé Ridel posted on social media platform X.

Just last week, Retailleau took aim at the core principles of the rule of law – the separation of executive, legislative, and judicial branches of power – arguing that they are “neither intangible nor sacred.”

“The source of the rule of law is democracy and the sovereign people,” he told the far-right weekly Le Journal du Dimanche.

Meanwhile, in its annual rule-of-law report published in July, the European Commission warned that Hungary “is a real systemic problem when it comes to the rule of law.”

[Edited by Martina Monti]