News outlet are being extremely vague about Orban’s motives, but it’s clear that no funds have been unfrozen. By the looks of it, it seems Hungary received no grants at all and just changed its mind out of the goodness of her heart, which is weird.
“From what we are hearing from our sources, they made it very clear to Viktor Orban that he is standing all alone in the EU, blocking this essential aid for Ukraine,” she said, adding that following the message it became clear Orban would finally say yes and so the EU leaders sat together to finalize the deal.
This makes me wonder if anything went on behind those closed doors. We know that yesterday Orban met with Meloni, who according to euronews
[Meloni] has fashioned herself as the most dexterous mediator between Budapest and Brussels. Meloni and Orbán held bilateral talks on Wednesday evening in anticipation of the high-stakes meeting.
All that’s left to hope is that Meloni and other EU leaders succesfully managed to scare off Hungary and that no backroom deals went on.
There have been numerous reports about EU officials/MPs considering stripping Hungary of its voting rights preceding this. So most likely Orban as just beenade aware that there’s a limit to which degree he can block stuff while still being allowed to play ball.
Possible. I’d love it if they actually went through with the article 7 threats, but until then using said threat to have Orban sit down is the next best thing.
I’m curious how they managed to persuade him. I hope it’s not by releasing of blocked funds so he can keep lining his pockets.
I believe it was the threat of sanctions if he didn’t agree.
I guess you’re referring to this
I wouldn’t be surprised if that confidential document outlining the sanctions was “accidentally” “leaked” on purpose to increase the pressure on him.
News outlet are being extremely vague about Orban’s motives, but it’s clear that no funds have been unfrozen. By the looks of it, it seems Hungary received no grants at all and just changed its mind out of the goodness of her heart, which is weird.
From DW
This makes me wonder if anything went on behind those closed doors. We know that yesterday Orban met with Meloni, who according to euronews
All that’s left to hope is that Meloni and other EU leaders succesfully managed to scare off Hungary and that no backroom deals went on.
There have been numerous reports about EU officials/MPs considering stripping Hungary of its voting rights preceding this. So most likely Orban as just beenade aware that there’s a limit to which degree he can block stuff while still being allowed to play ball.
Possible. I’d love it if they actually went through with the article 7 threats, but until then using said threat to have Orban sit down is the next best thing.
They threatened taking away Hungary’s voting power in EU altogether . Apparently there is a process to do that.