The gathering of EU leaders on Thursday, which went late into the night, ended with many expressing statements of thinly-veiled fury at Orbán’s actions.
“Colleagues who have been members of the European Council far longer than I have were deeply angered by what happened today,” Germany’s Merz told reporters during a news conference in the early hours of Friday.
“It is a gross act of disloyalty within the European Union,” he said. “I am firmly convinced that it will leave deep marks.”
France’s President Emmanuel Macron called the meeting’s outcome “unprecedented”, adding that the loan’s release must be “implemented without delay”.
Council President and chairman of the talks Costa added to the chorus of discontent, describing Hungary’s actions as “completely unacceptable”.
“Nobody can blackmail the European institutions,” he said.
Orbán, however, remained resolute in his stance following the meeting.
“It was a tough debate, but we stood our ground,” he wrote on X. “We have the right to say ‘no’ to the Ukrainian war loan. As long as @ZelenskyyUa does not lift the oil blockade, they will not receive any money from Brussels.”
The leaders’ condemnation of their Hungarian counterpart centres on Orbán’s broken promise at their summit in December to allow the loan to go ahead.
At the time, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic gave their consent, after being exempted from any financial obligations stemming from the loan.
However, Hungary is now blocking implementing legislation to allow the deal to go forward.
In addition to Orbán, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico – another ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin – also refused to endorse the summit’s conclusions that reaffirm the intent to release the funds to Ukraine. The release of the funds requires unanimity and the conclusions say it will be discussed at the leaders’ next meeting.
European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen vowed that the loan would be delivered “one way or the other”, while Macron said there would be “no plan B” for the funds, because “plan A must be implemented”.
Ahead of the meeting, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky had issued a plea for the release of the funds.
“For the third month now, the most important financial security guarantee for Ukraine from Europe is not working – the €90bn support package for this year and the next,” he told EU leaders during the summit.
“This is critical for us. It is a resource to protect lives,” he said.
Orbán has repeatedly stalled EU aid for Ukraine as well as successive rounds of sanctions on Russia.
He is seeking another term and opinion polls suggest his party is lagging behind their main rivals.