EU, Brussels’ total war against Orban. “He must be stopped at all costs” –

Gabriel Imperial

July 11, 2024

Stop Viktor Orban’s presidency at all costs. Make it harmless, without influence, but avoiding a direct clash. This is the line taken by Brussels and the European leaders following the trips undertaken in total autonomy by the Hungarian Prime Minister to Russia and China, which have embarrassed the 27, increasingly on the sidelines of Volodymyr Zelensky’s Ukraine. It is inevitable that this decision comes on the sidelines of the NATO summit, also given Washington’s concomitant anger over Budapest’s initiatives and the meetings that smack of betrayal with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.

The fact that the air between Orban and the European Union is increasingly tense is demonstrated by a first act of protest: the Committee of EU Ambassadors have expressed a formal complaint once morest Budapest. The Hungarian government has rejected the criticisms by clarifying that the trips to China and Russia would be organized only at a national level and not in a European capacity. But according to Claudio Tito’s reconstruction in La Repubblica, the consequences of the new clash between Hungary and the EU will be much broader. If on the one hand it is increasingly clear that revoking the semester of presidency in Budapest is unfeasible, on the other hand European politics will adopt other countermeasures. The informal European councils led by Orban will be deserted and downgraded, with the presence of EU ministers limited. The Hungarian prime minister will not have assigned any political task outside of the formal practices related to his role. Orban will therefore be destructured and his presidency will be only formal.

The new group “The Patriots” formed in Brussels by the Hungarian Prime Minister will suffer the same fate: none of the parliamentarians will be involved in the division of roles and will be excluded from the vice-presidencies and committee presidencies. But not only that: the revenge of the 27 will manifest itself in all its force in the autumn. The first turning point in the difficult relationship between Brussels and Orban will be the moment in which the European Parliament will have to examine the candidates for the Commissioners. Those most informed consider the immediate rejection of the name put forward by Budapest to be certain. And then the biggest threat: new and important economic sanctions might arrive on Hungary, the only topic that really interests the Hungarian Prime Minister.