PM Orbán’s feud with the EU seen as successful
February 2nd, 2024A liberal radio commentator thinks that dangerous as clashing with the European mainstream might seem, it may be politically profitable for Mr Orbán.
On Klubrádió, Iván Kárpáti describes Prime Minister Orbán as someone who has refined the tactics of brinkmanship to perfection. The idea is that a small concession after a tough standoff may be interpreted by the other side as a huge success. On the other hand, EU officials have also learned that game, he writes, as they threatened to strike painful blows against Hungary if the government fails to join the plan to commit 50 billion Euros to Ukraine for the forthcoming 4 years. Mr Orbán may be wrong, he continues, but to consider punishing a whole country because he wants to revise the Ukrainian aid programme annually would be highly questionable, legally speaking. Kárpáti points out that Mr Orbán’s doubts on the efficiency of aid channelled to Ukraine, as well as his opposition to the ‘Brussels bureaucracy’ find an increasing number of sympathisers – and not just in Hungary. However, the single-mindedness of a Hungarian prime minister is nothing more than unpleasant for European leaders. The big shock would come if Europe’s strongest country, Germany happened to choose the same path. People are already less ’green’ and less ’inclusive’ there than the country’s rulers would expect them to be, and those rulers spectacularly fail to address the country’s problems efficiently. ’Europe is in trouble’, Kárpáti concludes.