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Not surprisingly, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sees it differently. What is to be expected of a head of government who openly praises the advantages of “illiberal democracy”?
So it’s no wonder Orbán and Poland’s strongman Jarosław Kaczyński are fighting with hands and feet. But because both were unable to avoid the penal system, they are targeting the EU budget with their sharpest weapon: with their veto, Poland and Hungary are putting more than 1.8 billion euros from the joint budget and reconstruction fund on hold. planned. And that in times when the billions in aid to the severely damaged European economy should flow better today than tomorrow.
Italian hospitals, for example, urgently waiting for funds from Brussels, have to pay for the fact that Orbán and company do not want to play by European rules.
This is nothing more than a hostage-taking. The conditions in Poland and Hungary are as follows: There will only be money for everyone if the EU once again throws away the rule of law clause.
If the EU allowed it, it could close immediately. Because the message would be: With blackmail and the veto, everything can finally be enforced in the Union. And on top of that would be the license to further undermine the rule of law in Hungary and Poland.
But Europe also has to bear the accusation that it looked the other way for too long. For ten years, Orbán has gradually increased the illiberal part of Hungarian democracy and Poland works tirelessly to make the restructuring of its legal system irreversible. And the European People’s Party has yet to get its troublesome member, the Hungarian Fidesz, to reason or exclude it.
It is not about restricting national or Western European sovereignty against Eastern Europe, but about common rules and values. It is, therefore, even sadder that when a budget compromise is sought, one cannot trust that it will not be this idea that will lead Hungary and Poland to withdraw their veto, but only to great difficulties. Because who tops the list of the biggest net recipients? Right: Hungary and Poland.
