BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The real threat facing Hungary is not Russia but the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a speech to supporters on Saturday, as his nationalist party ramps up an anti-EU campaign ahead of national elections.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The real threat facing Hungary is not Russia but the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a speech to supporters on Saturday, as his nationalist party ramps up an anti-EU campaign ahead of national elections.
Weird that EU is sending so much money to Hungary, quite weird for an enemy organization.
An enemy organisation he’s free to leave at any time, also.
Why not ease that process, and kick them out altogether? I’m sure they’ll like the Russian Alternative.
There’s no way to kick a member out of the EU.
Mistakes can be rectified.
Not legally, since that change of statutes would require consent from all member states. Yeah, they kinda shot themselves in the foot by not preparing any response for rogue members.
There’s no way to kick a member out but a member can have their voting rights taken away and have their funds frozen. Hungary already had their funds frozen (which got unfrozen in 2023 but EU might demand those assets back, I made a different comment regarding that down below) and there is an ongoing article 7 process but it hasn’t reached a point where voting rights would be taken away, mostly because it’s very hard to get all the other EU countries to agree on it (for the longest time Poland made sure nothing would happen to Hungary and in return Hungary made sure nothing would happen to Poland).
Seems like this was a pretty big mistake nobody considered at the time…
They were dreaming of a better future…
They must have been following the UN Security Council’s example…
Because they’re having elections this year.
But we should consider it if Orban stays in.
Why would he leave when he can use the mechanisms of the EU to fuck shit up on behalf of Russia.
a ) let us see how his elections turn out b ) EU is reshaping so minorities cannot block and extort said money any longer.
Looking ahead to a brighter future.
I had to check what you meant because I thought EU turned off the faucet. Well, this is where it gets interesting. Apparently the faucet was turned off as per EU laws and then in December 2023 the EU commission unfroze the funds which amounted to 10 billion euros. But then in April 2024 the EU parliament filed a suit that the commission had wrongly applied the rule of law when unfreezing the funds. A few days ago, prior to the summit, a top advisor of the EU court of Justice said that the EU commission should demand that 10 billion back.
Would be interesting to know if Orban was making his comments before or after hearing this.
I’d guess blackmail. If not exactly voting yes but at least abstaining when UA support, RU sanctions were voted on. The current EU rules were not made for dealing with an actively sabotaging state in mind.
Yes. As was regulated in EU law. As with almost all changes in the EU, it took way too long before they managed to curb the funds. I hope that the internal rules will be thoroughly reworked to prevent/limit the damage of future deliquency. Still, good thing these problems were laid bare b/c of the misconduct of HU’s size. Imagine the damage if it was one of the bigger players… could be the end of the EU