Viktor Orbán: “What you ask of me, Angela, is suicide”

The strongest sentence

Last Monday, the day of the announcement of the Hungarian and Polish political vetoes, at the beginning of an interview at the Carmelite Monastery, published today, it turned out that he had sent a letter to German Chancellor Viktor Angela Merkel 2 hours earlier and had a video conference meeting with the EU. budget and rule of law.

The prime minister indicated that he could not reveal, on behalf of the correction, what Merkel had told him in this video conference, but he could tell what she had said to the chancellor, namely:

What you are asking me to do, Angela, is suicide.

Then Viktor Orbán explained why he thought member states were deviating from the summer agreement and why it was not right and what he thought would be a good solution.

What did the leaders of the member states agree on over the summer?

In the interview, the Hungarian Prime Minister stressed that in his opinion, under pressure from the European Parliament, with the active support of the German Presidency, the EU community deviated from the agreement reached at the EU marathon summit in July. By the way, only the governments of Hungary and Poland say it out loud., and the Article 7 rule of law procedure has been against them for years, and it was these two governments that last week lifted a political veto against the EU budget and recovery fund due to the status of too strict law. They argue that the Article 7 procedure cannot create a parallel mechanism or, if so, modify the Treaty first, which requires unanimity, which is not the case and that EU leaders have not been consulted.

As we’ve pointed out in countless articles since July, it’s all about the deal at the EU summer summit some of the debates arise for reasons of interpretation (this was also confirmed by Orbán in the current interview), the other part rather because of differences in value systems. The final declaration of the EU summit did not explain in detail what it would be like to link EU money to the rule of law, but only agreed in principle in a few sentences and stated that they would return to the subject.

As at dawn at the end of the summit, Orbán said that they had in fact agreed: the rule of law framework should only be understood in the context of protecting the EU budget, Instead of a broad rule of law mechanism, the leaders gave power. At the time, however, other national and EU leaders said otherwise.

According to press information at that time this was due to a large degree of communication differenceTowards the end of the fourth EU summit, to finally avoid the veto of the Hungarian and Polish prime ministers, they directly agreed on a short and loosely worded text, the potential content of which could be communicated to all outsiders as a success. According to him, according to the informant of the high-ranking diplomat Politico at that time They gave the two heads of government the escape routesell abroad as if their position had prevailed that the European Council had not mandated any comprehensive rule of law mechanism, the development of a budget protection mechanism could only begin. In this part of the final statement, it has only been said briefly that the method of voting on sanctions will be by qualified majority (15 Member States will suffice, thus the Polish and Hungarian vetoes in vain) and will return to the subject shortly .

Since then, with the active and effective support of the German Presidency, the EP and the Commission, as well as the northern Member States, the institutions have agreed on a relatively comprehensive rule of law mechanism in the negotiations and Draft unanimous regulation on the EU budget and recovery, which requires unanimity. Our articles on the specific mechanism of the rule of law and the political veto last week:

Other key messages from the interview:

• So, according to the prime minister, he just wants to comply with the EU treaty and is in a position to “keep everything unchanged” while the Germans want to force him to do something that was not agreed at the EU summer summit. Specifically, he put it this way: “The Hungarian image is that we are standing, and the German train is running towards us and wants to get us off the track.”
• He says this could be the case, but unanimity is needed to modify the treaty, and then all member states will have to be asked about it, so it will have to be discussed in the European Council (it was briefly last Thursday – ed.)
• The interviewer confronted Orban saying that in the rest of Europe they were not considered deviants from the summer agreement when the prime minister said: yes, there is an interpretation debate on this and it is an “ugly thing” “to gradually amend the treaty of the UE “without asking everyone would have been about that. He said: “This contradicts the idea of ​​the rule of law. But if the Germans want it, it will come. My little grenade is not enough, but the Germans could separate crisis management from discussions about the rule of law. “
• According to the interviewer, Viktor Orbán practically dropped political atomic bombs with the Hungarian (and Polish) budget veto applied due to the rule of law, to which the prime minister reacted that “if the Germans had done it, it would be an atomic bomb, the move Hungarian would only be a hand grenade. ” “He then declared that indebted member states that are above 100%, of course, need help quickly, while disputes over the rule of law do not need to be resolved immediately, so the two should be separated.
• According to Orbán, in this complicated situation, first it is necessary to clarify who wants what. He put it this way: “Countries in trouble want quick money, we give them the money. Other countries want new rules of the rule of law. OK let’s talk. The first thing to do immediately is the second thing that is less urgent. The rule of law, which sends its regards, can wait a few months. “

Cover Image Source: Sean Gallup / Getty Images