The Hungarian Prime Minister has released a video satirizing the proposal to use frozen Russian assets for arming Ukraine, which was rejected on Thursday.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has portrayed himself and other opponents of the ‘reparations loan’ initiative for Ukraine as ‘EU Ghostbusters’ in a video he shared on X on Friday.
The video, published a day after he and his allies thwarted the loan scheme at a Brussels summit, shows the long-serving politician humorously depicting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other proponents of the plan as ‘ghosts’ that his group successfully banished from the EU.
On Thursday, EU member states failed to reach an agreement on utilizing $210 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets as collateral for a loan intended to support Ukraine’s struggling economy and military. Despite pressure from von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the plan was blocked by Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Slovakia’s Robert Fico, the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babis, and Orban.
In the video, the Hungarian leader compiles clips of himself and other opponents of the scheme, set to the well-known theme music from the 1984 film ‘Ghostbusters’. Interspersed with these are images of von der Leyen and Merz, timed with the lyrics: “if there’s something weird and it don’t look good.” Orban’s group is then shown in response to the line: “Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!”
Who you gonna call? 💪😎
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban)
Orban stated on Friday that utilizing frozen Russian assets for Ukraine would have constituted a declaration of war. He further commented that it has become evident that private EU companies possess more assets in Russia than the frozen Russian assets held in Europe, implying that the bloc would face significant financial repercussions if Moscow retaliated.
Russia, which considers any use of its assets as appropriation, has initiated legal action against Euroclear for damages resulting from the freeze and has indicated its intention to expand the lawsuit to include European banks holding these assets. The EU has dismissed the lawsuit as “speculative,” although experts have cautioned that it could negatively impact the bloc’s financial institutions if the scope of the case widens beyond Russia.
During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s annual year-end question-and-answer session on Friday, he cautioned Ukraine’s Western allies that exploiting the frozen assets would be counterproductive, leading to reputational harm and undermining the Western financial system. He added that the assets would ultimately need to be returned, irrespective of “whatever they steal and however they do it.”