Hungarian PM lashes out at Brussels for holding back billions of euros.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Thursday the European Commission is blackmailing Hungary by withholding billions in frozen funds over rule-of-law concerns.
Orbán said the blackmail is “a fact,” even admitted by the blackmailers themselves — members of the European Parliament.
“In our view, Hungary fulfils all the qualities of the rule of law, and when the European Commission has specific needs, we implement everything from them, and we are also cooperative,” Orbán told reporters in Budapest during a press conference. “You cannot blame me for doing everything I can to promote Hungary’s interests in such a blackmailed situation.”
I do not trust that Hungary has fair and free elections, so I’d be careful with assuming anything of the will of the people.
I don´t think a country without free elections could join the EU in the first place. Have there been any hints to elections not being free in Hungary?
Everyone is free to vote, but there has been 10+ years of unbound propaganda since fidesz first won a super majority and basically centralised what the news broadcasts say in the country, controlled by a government appointed agency.
The country is also full of massive government funded billboards with propaganda, blaming the EU for every bad thing and praising Orbán for protecting Hungary.
Unfortunately these 2 work incredibly well on the majority of the population in the countryside, elderly people and everyone else who primarily get their information from TV and radio, most of whom don’t speak English to even check foreign sources even if they wanted to.
I’m not sure if ejecting Hungary would “fix” the issue, but I also don’t know what could be done at this point to get the country back on track. It’d be nice to maybe require more like a 90% support for motions to carry in the EU rather than a tiny country like Hungary being able to hold the entire continent hostage.
http://medialaws.ceu.hu/public_service_media_more.html https://rsf.org/en/hungary-s-sovereignty-law-viktor-orban-s-new-dangerous-provocation-targeting-independent-media
Maybe Hungary should have a vote about staying in or leaving the EU then? The situation as it is now is certainly not acceptable anyhow. Having EU members that are severely hostile towards the EU, who then block everything, make anti EU propaganda and at the same time keep pocketing millions of EU money is a farce. If they are so unhappy about being in the EU they should act accordingly and leave.
Please don’t. The only thing that makes the place livable is the option that if things go even worse the door is still open to leave.
I definitely agree that the situation as it is is unacceptable, no 1 country should have so much power over the entire EU. As a Hungarian, I think it’s incredibly shameful how much damage fidesz causes even outside the country.
I think it’d be better to remove the unlimited veto’s from the EU though (which would obviously not happen as it’d be veto’d sadly). Hungary has been the bad guy for some years, but don’t forget that other countries do use their veto powers in a similar fashion, just so happens that recently they were more aligned (e.g. Russia bad)
I wish the EU had a way to enforce that a country follows basic democratic rules after joining too, e.g. free media. I hope they find a way to support Ukraine without giving Hungary with this corrupt government.