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Although Hungary and Poland have long ignored democratic values cherished by other European countries, Brussels officials are struggling to discipline them, as each can veto the sanctions of the others.
This practice has changed since the recent initiative to link the payment of funds to the rule of law and democracy in the Member States, leading both parties to threaten to block the EU budget for 2021-2027 and the 750,000 millions of euros. approval of a package of financial instruments for the pandemic.
“The Poles are smart and they don’t blame the whole EU,” Waldemar Buda, deputy minister in charge of EU funds, told TVN24 on private television on Sunday. “They understand that it is only a group of leaders, absolutely liberal and of the left, that imposes their points of view on all parties.”
Government officials in Warsaw have long said that talking about Polexit is simply “political fiction”, even though the country’s prime minister said in November that being in the bloc was “sometimes good for Poland and sometimes not” .
Viktoras Orbanas, Mateuszas Morawiecki
Deadline looms threateningly
As the deadline for spending approval approaches, Hungary and Poland are betting the EU will land. Countries that expect to receive more than 180 billion in the next year. he calls the new rules an attack on his sovereignty.
But despite the health crisis and last-minute Brexit negotiations with the UK, the European Union is firmly committed not to change its position and is also hardening its rhetoric. Representatives of EU governments met in Brussels on Monday to discuss the deadlock.
According to a diplomat, Hungary and Poland are moving towards greater isolation. A French spokesman warned that the dispute could send a “breakthrough” message and raise questions about the future of the EU itself, sources said at a meeting in Brussels last week.
The conflict took on an even larger scale when Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban introduced political control of the independent media and the judiciary a decade ago. The EU objected, but was virtually powerless to stop it.
Rather than succumb to pressure, the Hungarian prime minister rejected the bloc’s values on a number of issues, from education to immigrants, equated the European Union with the Soviet Union for interfering in Hungarian affairs, and introduced his country as the victim of a liberal conspiracy to undermine Europe’s “Christian legacy”. “.
Last week, he called George Soros, a Hungarian Jewish investor and philanthropist, an “economic criminal.”
Later, Szilard Demeter, spokesman for the Orban-led Ministry of Culture, published a review article over the weekend equating Soros, who survived the Holocaust, with Adolf Hitler and the European Union with its “gas chambers.”
Hungarians and Poles are the “new Jews of Europe,” he wrote. A large group of Hungarian Jews called these comments “unforgivable.”
Demeter denied the article Sunday, but Orban did not say he would listen to calls for his dismissal.
Budget line
The Polish Nationalist Law and Justice Party (PiS) has taken a clear position, imitating many Hungarian politicians after the 2015 victory. Once again, the EU’s objections to judicial reforms that give more power to the government have changed little. There has been another controversy, specifically about attitudes towards LGBT minorities.
Mr Orban and the Polish government officials enjoy their role as fighters against, in their words, the harassment of the EU; last week, they used a press conference to consolidate their position on the EU budget. However, the groundlessness of his position becomes clear.
France has hinted at the possibility of restructuring the support fund for countries affected by the pandemic by eliminating Hungary and Poland. Further delays in budget approval may require the bloc to adhere to an emergency monthly budget with the rule of law conditions still in effect.
In the neighborhood, in Eastern Europe, meanwhile, both countries receive little support. The Slovenian prime minister is the only leader blocking them, but he recently got engaged after congratulating Donald Trump on his electoral victory.
The domestic situation is also heating up, with the majority of the population in both Hungary and Poland in favor of joining the EU, which has helped transform their economies with funds far in excess of the amount they contribute.
Poland has protested against stricter abortion regimes, while business groups, including banks and employers’ associations, sent a protest note to Morawiecki on Monday, stating that the veto plan would leave Poland “without partners and without money.”
“I hope the EU doesn’t bother the Poles enough to repeat the case of the UK, because the story sadly ended there,” said Buda. “But I think the Poles are smarter and they will not allow that to happen.”
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