Viktor Orbán will meet Pope Francis tomorrow at Vatican

Pope Francis will receive Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the Vatican on April 21.

Pope Francis will receive Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán at the Vatican on April 21, 2022, the Holy See Press Office announced on April 20. The issue of the war in Ukraine – which shares a border with Hungary – and the reception of Ukrainian refugees – around 800,000 refugees are present in Hungary – will likely be front and center in this meeting.

Viktor Orbán’s reception at the Vatican follows that of Andrzej Duda, President of Poland, on April 1, during which the issue of Ukrainian refugees was widely discussed. Unlike Poland, Orbán’s Hungary seems to be taking a position close to that of the Vatican towards Russia. Against the defenders of a hard line against the Kremlin – the position which has been strongly animated by Warsaw – the pontiff and the Hungarian Prime Minister seem to want to keep channels open with Moscow in order to preserve the possibility of a diplomatic solution to the conflict.