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Former Foreign Minister of Luxembourg Jean Asselborn has expressed his delight in no uncertain terms at the defeat of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. “We’re finally rid of this guy,” Asselborn said in Berlin during a discussion event hosted by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation, describing his first thought following yesterday’s parliamentary election. “He is not a European and never will be,” he said. The European Union has been far too patient with Orbán, and the European People’s Party has not acted quickly enough. “Imagine if something like this happened in one of the EU’s major countries?” He conceded, however, that the Union’s powers to intervene are limited; the withdrawal of voting rights for a member state can only occur unanimously, and the Union had no chance of achieving that because Poland’s ultra-conservative PiS politician Jarosław Kaczyński and Orbán supported each other.

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Former President of the European Parliament and former SPD leader Martin Schulz called the election an act of sovereignty on the part of the Hungarian people. For years, he said, Orbán had bought his way into the public’s favor, and that strategy had now failed. “You can't lie to people indefinitely.” The newly elected future successor, Péter Magyar of the Tisza Party, succeeded because he didn’t seek the spotlight but instead spent two years traveling through Hungarian villages and talking to people. They felt they were being taken seriously. “The Magyar model is a model of hope for getting rid of types like Orbán,” Schulz explained, recommending that German politicians and his own party follow this example to prevent the AfD from holding government offices.

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In France, too, the right-wing populists of the National Rally (Rassemblement National) are elected primarily in rural areas, explained Asselborn, who, like Schulz, began his political career as mayor of a small town. However, he added, politicians must also ensure that villages become viable again. If the current leader of Le Pen’s party, Jordan Bardella, becomes the next president of France, “the EU will no longer be what we envisioned.” He said he often understood Emmanuel Macron’s foreign policy views, but that on domestic policy, Macron had “completely failed.”

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Asselborn, a member of the Luxembourg Socialist Workers' Party, condemned the “neo-imperialism” of the United States and Russia, which he said violated all rules of international law. “The Iraq War should never have happened.” Its consequences are still being felt today. And he could not imagine that bombing Iran would now achieve more than diplomacy. In any case, it would not bring down the regime in Tehran. Europe must absolutely adhere to the international legal order; otherwise, the world will sink into anarchy.

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“We need more Asselborn and less Rubio in international politics,” said Schulz, who has been the head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung since 2020. He saw the Luxembourger as a good mix of plain language and diplomacy. Asselborn headed the Foreign Ministry from 2004 to 2023, and during that time he earned not only a reputation as a lover of frank speech but also as an extremely skilled diplomat whose influence extended far beyond the borders of tiny Luxembourg. When he stepped down from office in 2023, he was Europe’s longest-serving foreign minister.

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