{"id":317,"date":"2026-02-09T01:32:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:32:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/317\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T01:32:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T01:32:25","slug":"the-5-hardest-jobs-in-brussels-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/317\/","title":{"rendered":"The 5 hardest jobs in Brussels \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In an attempt to fight back, Kallas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/martin-selmayr-comeback-raises-prospect-major-ursula-von-der-leyen-kaja-kallas-turf-war\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">tried<\/a> to appoint a powerful deputy secretary general in the form of Martin Selmayr, Juncker\u2019s feared former chief of staff, but <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/inside-martin-selmayr-conclave-of-catastrophe\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.politico.eu\/article\/inside-martin-selmayr-conclave-of-catastrophe\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the move was blocked<\/a> by von der Leyen\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Kallas \u201cprivately complains that she [von der Leyen] is a dictator but there\u2019s little or nothing she can do about that,\u201d said one senior official. Kallas also comes from tiny Estonia, and her party, the liberals, is small, making her position even weaker than Borrell\u2019s (a socialist from Spain).<\/p>\n<p>Kallas\u2019 office did not reply to a request for a comment.<\/p>\n<p>B\u00e1lint \u00d3dor, Hungarian ambassador<\/p>\n<p>Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n likes to play the villain with his pro-Russia and pro-Trump lines, which makes the job of the country\u2019s EU ambassador difficult. The current ambassador, B\u00e1lint \u00d3dor, is seen as close to Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party, unlike his predecessor, <a href=\"https:\/\/op.europa.eu\/en\/web\/who-is-who\/person\/-\/person\/EEAS_00006A0F0D63\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Tibor Stelbaczky<\/a>, who now works for the EU\u2019s diplomatic body.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2247662027-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7823472\"  \/>B\u00e1lint \u00d3dor is seen as close to Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Fidesz party. | Thierry Monasse\/Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>When Hungarian ambassadors try to soften some of the harsh lines coming from the government, it creates suspicions in Budapest about their loyalty, said a Hungarian diplomat. One official described the Hungarian ambassador as the \u201celephant in the room,\u201d because of the country\u2019s close ties with the Kremlin.<\/p>\n<p>During the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the EU last year, some diplomats raised concerns about sharing certain information with the Hungarians because of Orb\u00e1n\u2019 s proximity to Russia (Hungary\u2019s Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 holds regular meetings with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, who is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/en\/press\/press-releases\/2022\/02\/25\/russia-s-military-aggression-against-ukraine-eu-imposes-sanctions-against-president-putin-and-foreign-minister-lavrov-and-adopts-wide-ranging-individual-and-economic-sanctions\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">under EU sanctions)<\/a>. \u00d3dor told POLITICO: \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to serve my country and represent Hungarian interests.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In an attempt to fight back, Kallas tried to appoint a powerful deputy secretary general in the form&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[343,344,18,345,346,347,348,349,350,251,351,181,352,300,353],"class_list":["post-317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brussels","tag-ambassador-balint-odor","tag-brexit","tag-brussels","tag-diplomacy","tag-european-green-deal","tag-foreign-policy","tag-hungarian-politics","tag-kaja-kallas","tag-mark-rutte","tag-maros-sefcovic","tag-media","tag-trade","tag-transatlantic-relations","tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","tag-valdis-dombrovskis"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}