Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, shake hands during their meeting in the presidential Alexander Palace in Budapest, Thursday, May 9, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

Chinese President Xi Jinping received a ceremonial welcome in Hungary’s capital on Thursday ahead of a day of talks with Hungarian officials which are expected to result in further Chinese investments in the Central European country.

Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok received Mr. Xi in an opulent courtyard of Budapest’s Buda Castle, where the two men walked down a red carpet beside a ceremonial honor guard and listened to the Chinese and Hungarian national anthems.

Numerous Chinese and Hungarian officials attended the ceremony, including Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s long-serving populist leader who has pursued deeper ties with Beijing while distancing himself from his more mainstream partners in the European Union.

Mr. Xi arrived in Hungary late Wednesday in a European tour that also took in Serbia and France. He will hold talks later in the day with Orbán and other officials on potential Chinese investments in Hungary in infrastructure, energy and electric vehicle manufacturing.

Beijing has invested billions in Hungary and sees the EU member as an important foothold inside the 27-member trading bloc. In December, Hungary announced that one of the world’s largest EV manufacturers, China’s BYD, will open its first European EV production factory in the south of the country — an inroad that could upend the competitiveness of the continent’s auto industry.

Hungary is also hosting several Chinese EV battery plants and hopes to become a global hub of lithium ion battery manufacturing, and has undertaken a railway project to connect the country with the Chinese-controlled port of Piraeus in Greece as an entry point for Chinese goods to Central and Eastern Europe.

Newly elected Hungarian President Tamas Sulyok looks on as people applaud, during the spring session of parliament in Budapest, Hungary, on February 26, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Hungary’s Parliament on February 26 elected a political novice as President following the resignation of his predecessor, who caused outrage by pardoning a man convicted in a child abuse case.

The affair has turned into the biggest political crisis that nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban has faced since his return to power in 2010.

Also read: Crisis for Hungary’s Viktor Orban as President and Minister resign | Explained

Orban ally Katalin Novak resigned as President earlier this month after it was revealed she had pardoned a convicted child abuser’s accomplice.

Last week, ruling party Fidesz nominated Constitutional Court head Tamas Sulyok, 67, to replace Ms. Novak, Hungary’s first woman president.

On Monday, parliament — where Fidesz’ ruling coalition with the Christian Democratic KDNP holds a two-thirds majority — approved his appointment, after which he took the oath of office.

He will become President on March 5.

Little known to the broader public, Mr. Sulyok became a constitutional court judge in 2014 and, two years later, the court’s head.

The opposition has criticised the nomination of politically inexperienced Mr. Sulyok.

Around 3,000 people attended a Sunday protest by four opposition parties, calling for direct presidential elections.

The post is largely ceremonial.

‘Duller presidency’

The Novak scandal broke early this month when news site 444 revealed that she had pardoned the former deputy director of a children’s home last year, on the eve of Pope Francis’s visit.

The man was sentenced in 2022 to three years and four months in prison for helping to cover up his boss sexually abusing children and adolescents there.

Tens of thousands of people have protested against the presidential pardon in Hungary, whose government has long campaigned on a pledge to protect children.

Mr. Orban has likened the resignation of Ms. Novak to a “nightmare”, but stressed it was the right decision.

When opening the parliament session on Monday, he described Mr. Sulyok as someone with “vast experience, respected knowledge and undisputed authority”.

“I believe that Hungary needs such a president now,” he said.

Under Mr. Sulyok, the Constitutional Court made several controversial rulings, including on teachers’ rights to strike.

To calm anger over the pardon scandal, Mr. Orban has promised to tighten existing laws to bar convicted child abusers from receiving clemency.

He also wants to vet those working with children to make sure they have passed the “appropriate suitability test”, covering “lifestyle, sexual deviance and psychological fitness”.

Szabolcs Pek, a political analyst from research institute Iranytu Intezet, said the decision to appoint Sulyok, who is not a party member and described as a “reserved man”, meant Mr. Orban was playing it safe.

“We cannot expect from Tamas Sulyok the kind of world-travelling, ‘influencer’ politics that Katalin Novak represented, for his professional character and personality are the guarantee of a duller, perhaps one might say boring, presidency, which is all Fidesz needs,” he told AFP.