Viktor Orbán

Although, officially, the letter is not the first stage of this procedure to withhold EU funds, most experts regard it as such: if the governments fail to provide adequate answers to the Commission's questions, a suspension of EU funds will be a step closer.

Blaming Turkey for the refugee crisis is a "real ingratitude," the country's president said on Nov. 11.

"It is Greece that is condemning refugees to death by skewering their boats," Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said in a press conference alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the capital Ankara following a meeting between the two. "We have all the documents."

"Prime Minister Viktor Orban discussed the creation of a new European political grouping in a video conference with Matteo Salvini, leader of the Italian Lega party, and Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, vice-president of the Law and Justice party (PiS)," Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister's press chief, announced on Wednesday.

Marki-Zay, or MZP as he's known more colloquially, was polling so poorly before the first round of the primaries on September 18-28 that it seemed highly unlikely he would be among the top three candidates to make it through to the second and final round held on October 10-16. But then he did, with only 21 per cent of the vote.

Peter Marki-Zay, the conservative mayor of Hodmezovasarhely and leader of the joint opposition. Photo: Facebook

Central European leaders signed a joint declaration on Thursday saying immigration should not be the answer to the European Union's declining birth rate, while calling on the bloc to keep family policy under national jurisdiction, Reuters reports.

Of late, the Commission has adopted a much tougher approach, with the EU executive slowing down the process of disbursing cash from the bloc's 750-billion-euro coronavirus recovery fund to Europe's two most recalcitrant members.

Pope Francis arrived in Budapest on Sept. 12 to celebrate a mass, with eyes focused on his meeting with the anti-migration Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

The head of 1.3 billion Catholics will have a half-hour meeting with Orban - accompanied by Hungarian President Janos Ader - in Budapest's grand Fine Arts Museum, in what could be an awkward brief encounter.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Hungary and Serbia had "agreed to rebuild Central Europe", after a joint government session with Serbia in Budapest on Wednesday.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and her Hungarian counterpart Orban signed an agreement on cordial relations and their strategic partnership.

For others, however, the potential benefits far outweigh the risks. The tens of thousands of expected pilgrims will help revive an ailing tourism sector in Budapest and the event itself could boost Hungary's image abroad as a Christian country.