For the first time since 2014, the blue-and-yellow flag of the European Union is displayed again on the facade of the Hungarian Parliament Building in Budapest, Hungary.
PM Péter Magyar, even before taking office, has voiced his intention to return the EU flags to the Parliament Building, in a post to his Facebook page in late April. Now, as he took office on Saturday, 9 May, the flag has been placed as planned.
However, the decision was officially made by Ágnes Forsthoffer, the new Speaker of the House in the National Assembly of Hungary.
The flag of the European Union was removed from the Budapest Parliament Building in May 2014, as tensions between Budapest and Brussels were heating up. A few months prior, in February of that year, two MPs of the far-right opposition Jobbik Party (which has since been defunct) theatrically threw the EU flag out of the window of the parliament house—misdated clips of that incident, purporting it to be a recent event, periodically popped up in the social media site X under the tenure of eurosceptic Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of Hungary.
The move to reinstall the EU flag on the Parliament House symbolizes the new Magyar administration’s willingness for better cooperation with Brussels than its predecessor. However, PM Magyar has also shown reluctance in giving in to EU requests on the issue of migration.
The decision to have the EU flag displayed again on one of Hungary’s most recognizable landmarks has drawn some backlash on X, with some users claiming it represents the new government’s subservience to the EU. The overenthusiastic dance moves by the Minister of Health Zsolt Hegedűs of Hungary at the inauguration celebration have also received some ridicule online.
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