I’m no fan of the EU and voted to leave it, but I can understand their frustration with Orban. He constantly has his hand out expecting EU funds to prop up Hungarys economy, yet he doesn’t seem willing to accept any of the obligations that come with being part of the bloc.
Ultimately his only job is to look after Hungarys interests so I don’t blame him for acting the way he does, however the rest of Europe must wonder why they bother funding his country if he goes against everything the EU does.
I don’t think you want to live in Hungary. I know people there (my partner often works with Hungarian customers) – lawyers and other professional people, who say they’d rather work as waiters and waitresses in Austria than carry on as well-paid lawyers in HU. It seems oppressive.
Katharine Eyre
1 year ago
This whole sorry negotiation procedure was utterly moronic. The EU shot itself in the foot in 3 different ways:
By having to go on haggling for so long, it made any talk of unity seem absolutely laughable, even if they did come to an “agreement” in the end. “Unity” is just a buzzword thrown around with no connection to reality, and the more the Brussels lot repeated it, the more absurd it became. The EU has shown that it is completely, woefully unfit for the fast-moving world of 21st century geopolitics.
It allowed Orbán to set the tone and the agenda and the narrative here. Any tough talk on the rule of law which happens after this will have a total lack of credibility as the precedent set is to let Orbán have his way in a very public fashion.
The effect of this embargo, or partial embargo, or damp squib, or whatever else you want to call it, is limited. Sure, Russia is going to see its oil revenue fall – but Turkey and India and other countries not quite so bothered about the conflict are going to rush right into the vacuum and buy up the “spare” oil (perhaps for a cheaper price). Russia will still be flush with fossil-fuels cash and will carry on regardless.
The EU did not think this through at all. It should have just dropped the whole issue as soon as it became apparent that there would be a scrap over it. What we saw was a decadent and unseemly wrangle which was all about internal tensions and faultlines and not really about the key issue, Ukraine.
I don’t know. Maybe – somewhere in my gnarled old soul, there is still a bit of hope left that the EU I used to so fervently believe in is actually the force for the good in the world (incl. that which is outside the EU) it parps on about being. I’m constantly setting myself up for disappointment.
0 0
1 year ago
All this mess and so many innocent death for what? Because no-one wants peace and just gets along with the brainwash narrative to destroy Russia instead. EU is already a US vassal and give me one single example when NATO (most like US) was defensive and just ignoring Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan etc.
Or let me put it differently, how the world will react if Russia will manage to install munition in South America, Mexico, Cuba etc.?
The answer is peace and fair international agreements between all countries and not spending more on munitions but the contrary.
‘No-one wants peace’. The Ukrainians do (a nation which is of course currently providing 100% of the ‘innocent deaths’) – as I would wager the vast majority of Europeans and North Americans, and even probably Russian citizens. The only people who most certainly do not are Putin and his clique, as they have shown for 20 rather bloody years in power.
You really must be naive in the extreme if you believe that somehow the United States and the Europeans are the main cause of this unprovoked invasion, and that they could do something to stop the killing by doing some action (that you do not specify) other than helping the Ukrainians to resist. I’m pleased to live in a democratic and liberal nation that was helped by American lend-lease and other assistance in our darkest hour – without which the UK would have very likely become a Nazi puppet state – as of course would the whole of Europe.
Blaming the US for everything wrong in the world is laughably misguided and absurd – for all its faults it has stood in practical opposition to totalitarians in Nazi German (which killed millions), the Soviet Union (tens of millions) and China (even more tens of millions dead).
That is the big picture that seems to have passed you by.
The EU is not a US vassal and many European states are ambivalent to it, to say the least, in particular Germany and France. The US has paid the bills for decades for the pacifist delusions and sneering condescension of some Europeans towards their country. Our autocratic adversaries, the Russians and Chinese, hold this weakness and pusillanimity in total contempt.
Pueblo Southwest
1 year ago
Orban in quite aware of the Western response (or lack thereof) to the Soviet invasion in 1956 and has no desire for a repeat performance. Difficult to hold that against him.
ARNAUD ALMARIC
1 year ago
What happened to Linda Hutchinson’s erudite comment?
The more I hear about Orbán’s Hungary, the more I like it
That’s very concerning.
Why?
He only ‘fights’ his own corner.
I’m no fan of the EU and voted to leave it, but I can understand their frustration with Orban. He constantly has his hand out expecting EU funds to prop up Hungarys economy, yet he doesn’t seem willing to accept any of the obligations that come with being part of the bloc.
Ultimately his only job is to look after Hungarys interests so I don’t blame him for acting the way he does, however the rest of Europe must wonder why they bother funding his country if he goes against everything the EU does.
I don’t think you want to live in Hungary. I know people there (my partner often works with Hungarian customers) – lawyers and other professional people, who say they’d rather work as waiters and waitresses in Austria than carry on as well-paid lawyers in HU. It seems oppressive.
This whole sorry negotiation procedure was utterly moronic. The EU shot itself in the foot in 3 different ways:
The EU did not think this through at all. It should have just dropped the whole issue as soon as it became apparent that there would be a scrap over it. What we saw was a decadent and unseemly wrangle which was all about internal tensions and faultlines and not really about the key issue, Ukraine.
Katharine, why are you surprised ?
It’s the EU. It’s always about the internal stuff and never about the real external problems.
I don’t know. Maybe – somewhere in my gnarled old soul, there is still a bit of hope left that the EU I used to so fervently believe in is actually the force for the good in the world (incl. that which is outside the EU) it parps on about being. I’m constantly setting myself up for disappointment.
All this mess and so many innocent death for what? Because no-one wants peace and just gets along with the brainwash narrative to destroy Russia instead. EU is already a US vassal and give me one single example when NATO (most like US) was defensive and just ignoring Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Afghanistan etc.
Or let me put it differently, how the world will react if Russia will manage to install munition in South America, Mexico, Cuba etc.?
The answer is peace and fair international agreements between all countries and not spending more on munitions but the contrary.
‘No-one wants peace’. The Ukrainians do (a nation which is of course currently providing 100% of the ‘innocent deaths’) – as I would wager the vast majority of Europeans and North Americans, and even probably Russian citizens. The only people who most certainly do not are Putin and his clique, as they have shown for 20 rather bloody years in power.
You really must be naive in the extreme if you believe that somehow the United States and the Europeans are the main cause of this unprovoked invasion, and that they could do something to stop the killing by doing some action (that you do not specify) other than helping the Ukrainians to resist. I’m pleased to live in a democratic and liberal nation that was helped by American lend-lease and other assistance in our darkest hour – without which the UK would have very likely become a Nazi puppet state – as of course would the whole of Europe.
Blaming the US for everything wrong in the world is laughably misguided and absurd – for all its faults it has stood in practical opposition to totalitarians in Nazi German (which killed millions), the Soviet Union (tens of millions) and China (even more tens of millions dead).
That is the big picture that seems to have passed you by.
The EU is not a US vassal and many European states are ambivalent to it, to say the least, in particular Germany and France. The US has paid the bills for decades for the pacifist delusions and sneering condescension of some Europeans towards their country. Our autocratic adversaries, the Russians and Chinese, hold this weakness and pusillanimity in total contempt.
Orban in quite aware of the Western response (or lack thereof) to the Soviet invasion in 1956 and has no desire for a repeat performance. Difficult to hold that against him.
What happened to Linda Hutchinson’s erudite comment?