Original Financial Times article (behind paywall)
The European Union will sabotage Hungary’s economy if Budapest blocks fresh aid to Ukraine at a summit this week, under a confidential plan drawn up by Brussels, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Brussels has outlined a strategy to explicitly target Hungary’s economic weaknesses, imperil its currency and drive a collapse in investor confidence in a bid to hurt “jobs and growth” if Budapest refuses to lift its veto on the aid to Kyiv, the newspaper reported, citing a document drawn up by EU officials.
Notorious for many bitter feuds with the EU during his 13 years in power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become a vocal critic of the bloc’s support for Ukraine and boasted about his ties with the Kremlin since Russia went to war in Ukraine in February 2022.
The document seen by FT declares that “in the case of no agreement in the February 1 [summit], other heads of state and government would publicly declare that in the light of the unconstructive behaviour of the Hungarian PM . . . they cannot imagine that” EU funds would be provided to Budapest.
Ah! Secret EU plan against Orban! Well FT, if you don‘t produce more of this document, and any kind of proof that this is more than a research paper, I call BS. There is so little in this article supporting the monstrous claim that the EU is secretly planning to devalue Hungary‘s currency, that I get the feeling that this is the expression of an anti EU agenda by the FT itself. There you go, that‘s my monstrous assumption.
I still think it would be cleaner if they used the official mechanism for this, ie. stripping then of voting rights, rather than resorting to extra-legal tactics like these which is essentially just blackmail.
extra-legal tactics like these which is essentially just blackmail
Politics?
This all seems so implausible.
They can’t cut funding but they can enact all that?
strategy to explicitly target Hungary’s economic weaknesses, imperil its currency and drive a collapse in investor confidence in a bid to hurt “jobs and growth”
How? Supposedly there is a document outlining all this, then why not mention how this is supposed to work?
And how are these plans supposed to compel Hungary to do something if they are secret?It may be me, but this all doesn’t sound like a stable relationship. Plus, it will give other EU members (especially where the growing ultra right wing anti-EU parties are reigning) more reason for their own Brexit-like plans.
You have to draw the line somewhere. Enough is enough. They’ve been nothing but cooperative until now and all the goodwill has been taken advantage of and painted as weakness. It’s about damn time they switched from passive to active pushback.
And it’s not going to provide anti-EU people with anything they haven’t dreamed up themselves long ago. Have you listened to anti-EU propaganda? It’s mostly demented, wild conspiracies.
The EU is an association of like-minded societies. If Hungary doesn’t feel like it belongs anymore they can start considering withdrawing.
Which countries are that though?
Poland has a pro EU government now, albeit society remains split. Still if they wouldn’t align with the EU, they would have to align with Russia. They are fiercly against that.
Slovakia and Hungary are in the same boat. Orban doesn’t really want to leave the EU. He knows that aligning with Russia would kill the countries economy and he either gets to rule over rubble or the people will kill him.
They instead want to play the EU and Russia by playing both sides for as much opportunistic gain as possible. By not playing, the EU calls the bluff.
Poland has a pro EU government now, albeit society remains split. Still if they wouldn’t align with the EU, they would have to align with Russia. They are fiercly against that.
Poles being anti-EU is something that ex-government / political right has been trying to manufacture for years without any internal success. We trust EU institutions more than our own. We might be split on some policies but majority is strongly for at least current level of integration.
They still ought to use the official mechanism rather than this which is just blackmail