Fuming EU officials: "Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán has been zooming around like a cat on meth"

From Kyiv to meet his bête noire Volodymyr Zelensky, to Moscow for a chinwag with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, to Beijing to press flesh with Chairman Xi Jinping, the Hungarian prime minister has carried out a dizzying program of global diplomacy which, he says, is designed to bring peace to Ukraine.

But Orbán's hyperactive hopscotching has left Europe's real presidents rolling their eyes, with European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council boss Charles Michel both slamming the Hungarian leader as he steals their thunder and stirs the pot in Brussels, Politico reports.

The ruckus began on social media last Tuesday, day two of the six-month Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU, with a hype video which purposely painted Orbán as a man on a mission.

A grand motorcade blaring sirens and flashing blue and red lights en route “for peace.” Dramatic music, action movie-style shots and — 2,100 kilometers later, in the capital of Ukraine — the man who claims he can prevent a world war appeared.

The music became more powerful as he arrived at the presidential palace in Kyiv, "Politico" writes. 

Orbán sat down with Ukraine's President Zelensky for “three hours of negotiations,” that ended with smiles on both sides and a press conference with a handshake.

Tanjug/Zoltan Fischer/Hungarian PM's Press Office/MTI via AP

Just three days later, Orbán was off again — creating much greater controversy among EU leaders who insist he does not speak for them; that his role as Hungarian prime minister as it runs the Council of the EU is diplomatically irrelevant.

This time he offered the same hand in Moscow to Putin, Russia's bloodthirsty leader who has been waging war on Ukraine for years and threatening Europe's post-world-war security architecture, Politico adds.

Despite protestations from Brussels, Orbán proudly declared that he had come to Moscow as an emissary of the European Union.

“We cannot achieve peace without dialogue and diplomatic channels,“ Orbán said in the Kremlin.

“I have experienced that the positions are far from each other, but in terms of the restoration of dialogue the first important step was taken today", he added. 

At the end of his travel video, the Hungarian presidency logo appeared with its Trumpian slogan: Make Europe Great Again.

Orbán's visit to Putin, during which he appeared to lack some of the bravado apparent in his Kyiv video, had a boomerang effect, when on Monday morning Putin's forces bombed a children's hospital in Kyiv, "Politico" says. 

Tanjug/Valeriy Sharifulin, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP

The renegade diplomatic mission has killed Hungary's EU presidency stone dead, according to one Brussels insider.

“Member states were already irritated by the 'MEGA' motto. But a meeting with Putin will permanently overshadow the Hungarian presidency," an EU diplomat told Politico on Friday, after being granted anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.

“With such a meeting the presidency ends before it has really begun”, he said.

But does Orbán really care? Or is he using the presidency as a tool to act like what his supporters at home call him: The leader of Europe?

The man on a mission checked in from, whew, Beijing on Monday morning.

“China is the only world power that has been clearly committed to peace. This is important for Hungary and for the entire European Union,” said Orbán, genuflecting before Chinese President Xi Jinping who the U.S. — a NATO ally of Hungary — has accused of buttressing Russia's aggression in Ukraine.

Tanjug/Vivien Cher Benko/Hungarian PM's Press Office//MTI via AP

But the real reason for Orbán's whirlwind first week of the EU presidency could lie closer to home, "Politico" added. 

Orbán's party, Fidesz, just suffered its weakest result in 15 years at the European election, and a new opponent has emerged. Péter Magyar was a longtime Orbán ally, but in February he turned against the Budapest establishment, started a public movement that became a party — and snagged almost 30 percent of the vote at the ballot box. It was the strongest showing by an opposition party in Hungary in the last 15 years.

After a severe recession and an empty budget, Orbán has little to offer the public that could win him support. He could, however, present himself as a “peacemaker,” just as he did during the election campaign, Politico states.

But Orbán’s tactics could also turn against him. EU ambassadors will discuss the presidency and his recent trips at their meeting Wednesday in Brussels, in a first sign that EU officials could move from public condemnations alone to concrete action to restrain Budapest’s presidency.

According to a second EU diplomat, there are growing concerns about Orbán.

“It should be clear that he is only representing his own country, but instead he deliberately left a lot of ambiguity,” the diplomat said.