According to the Washington Post, Viktor Orbán’s policies are weakening the European Union from within. In a critical report on the first few months of Hungary’s presidency of the EU, the paper addresses issues ranging from “troll diplomacy” to Orbán’s visit to Moscow.
“As soon as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán assumed Hungary’s presidency of the European Union in July, one thing was clear: he increasingly stands for everything the EU opposes,” writes The Washington Post in a recent article on the Hungarian EU presidency. The paper examined Orbán’s first two months of the rotating presidency, raising concerns over whether the Hungarian Prime Minister is aligned with or against the European Union’s goals.
EU presidency turning to “troll diplomacy”
“The problem is that Orbán increasingly stands for everything the EU opposes,” The Washington Post writes, citing as an example last year’s national consultation on issues such as migration, LGBTQ+ rights, and support for Ukraine, At the time, AP News wrote of the national consultation that it struck “a combative tone toward the EU,” accusing it of “trying to force policies on Hungary.”
Péter Krekó of the Center for European Policy Analysis told the WP that the first two months of the Hungarian EU presidency have descended into “troll diplomacy,” with Orbán wanting to “provoke more anger from the leaders of the European Union.” The paper recalls the Prime Minister’s controversial visit to Moscow as part of his “peace mission,” which also included meetings with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing and with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago.
All of this, The Washington Post highlights, occurred despite the fact that China is increasingly regarded as the European Union’s “systemic rival,” and that the EU has “embraced US President Joe Biden after four especially acrimonious years with Donald Trump.”
Washington Post: EU leaders displeased with Orbán
In a scathing description of the status quo, the Washington Post writes that
“In the halls of the EU institutions from the parliament to the executive European Commission, every day officials are on the lookout for what Orbán might do next to discredit the bloc until the end of the year.”
One indication of the growing dissatisfaction felt by EU politicians towards the actions of the Hungarian Prime Minister is that the meeting of foreign ministers on Thursday was organised in Brussels rather than Budapest. Furthermore, as the Washington Post points out, some states have already refused to attend other meetings in Hungary, sending lower-ranking bureaucrats instead of ministers.
However, as the decision-making process of the European Union often requires unanimity, “taking tough action is extremely difficult,” giving Hungary significant bargaining power when it comes to contentious issues.
Hungary: middleman between the EU and other states
Despite the often harsh criticism levelled against the European Union by the Orbán government, Hungary has no plans to leave the bloc, the Washington Post adds, quoting Orbán’s statement at a summer camp: “In Brussels, we are not passive, but we have set up shop there: we are not moving out, but moving in.”
Hungary’s position as an EU member also makes it important to nations like Russia and China. According to the Washington Post, for these states, Hungary provides “a foot in the door of the massive bloc they would not have if Orbán chose to leave the community he loathes.” Péter Krekó adds “I would absolutely agree that what Orbán does is usually serving the interests of Russia and China, but it serves his own interests as well — Orbán wants to weaken the European Union from within.”
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i can hear orban saying “i tried to reach peace but the eu did not let me” another great success story of mr orban🤣
Who cares what a leftist rag like the Washington Post says about Orbán? They give Trump the same fake news treatment.
The E.U. opposes national sovereignty, border control, putting European peoples’ interests first, pursuing prosperity. at least maintaining the current living standards and quality of life, freedom (especially of speech), small government, and peace.
They are not the good guys.
Those who stand on the other side of such agenda are.
It’s a truly sad situation. Orban and Fidesz exist to destroy the EU and NATO to assist Russia and China who pay off Hungarian leaders for their assistance. Hungary’s membership in the two organizations is completely parasitical. Russia and China have found a way to critically weaken Europe by using Hungary to exploit the unanimity clauses in the rules of the EU and NATO. Fidesz does not care if it destroys Europe and in fact encourages Europe’s destruction while it claims that the West is in decline. The EU membership has to find a way to end the unanimity rule and push for implementation of Article 7 sanctions on Hungary. Europe has a terrible enemy within – Hungary.
Mr. Orban is the only European politician who cares for its people and who want PEACE, not like the clowns “running” the eu show.
I wonder if Germany might start changing some of its policies to reflect the wishes of its people as shown in Sunday’s elections in Saxony and Thurungia. The actual peoples of the EU seem to be more in tune with Orbán in many respects than its ruling élite.
Anyone that thinks the far right represents the majority political view in Europe outside of Hungary is living in cloud cuckoo land. Even in the recent German state elections they polled barely 30% of the vote. They have increasingly electoral success but they’re not about to take over central government anywhere, the majority of moderate, decent citizens can see it’s an exceptionally bad idea to choose this path, particularly in German with the weight of history on their shoulders. Even Hungary is not the best example in this regard as Fidesz was a moderate, centre right Conservative party that elected to abandon its roots, alienating its founding supporters. They cynically decided to exploit the greivances that run deep in Hungarian society for electoral gain, rather than remaining true to their founding principles, turning Hungary into an exceptionally angry and divided society over issues like migration, which is deeply ironic as Hungary has never been, nor is it ever likely to turn into a destination country for migrants, at most it’s a stepping stone to other countries that offer higher living standards and established diasporas. Hungarians need to get over themselves, their country is not seen as an attractive place to live by people in both the east and west. Even amongst the western ‘expat’ community, let’s be honest, how many of us are here by choice and how many were drawn by the low cost of living and cheap property and if we were wealthier we’d rather live in Vienna, Munich or Paris?
WAPO never published a true fact in its existence, well maybe a few times hundred years ago. The voters of Thuringia and Saxony voted for a right-wing government. The AFD agrees with Hungarian policies. The AFD platform supports democracy but is against Muslim and other uncontrolled migration.
The voters of Thuringia and Saxony (for idiot reporters of WAPO, these are parts of Germany) represent the majority of Germans and Europeans; these people are tired of supporting migrants at the lowering of their standard of living, rising prices of shelters and the increasing number of crimes.
More right-wing government will be elected if the EU Parliament and national governments of member states keep ignoring the wishes of the people.
It is true WAPO is owned by Amazon a a major conduit for CIA propaganda and have worked very hard for the last 9 years to destroy Trump. They did acknowledge he was shot along with others and the crazy secret service debacule got little mention. Never mentioned the CIA was behind the revolt in Eukraine in 2014.
As for the EU, they are trying to silence any descent online.-it is a step behind Brazil in trying to have Elon Musk arrested and censor X. Doesn’t make news here but some Hollywood type stays as news for a week. I don’t remember any reporting on the Russian pipeline blowing up. I guess that means Orbans son in law wasn’t involved.