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Posts Tagged ‘Viktor Orban’

The US-Led World Order Is Faltering… Here’s Why It’s Bad News for Europe

Posted by M. C. on September 14, 2022

by Chris MacIntosh

The effect on the West of U.S. sanctions and military operations against Russia has been to lock Europe into a political and economic Iron Curtain of dependency on the United States, while driving Russia to form closer ties with the US enemies, namely China and Iran.

It is so myopically and comically stupid that only bureaucrats in their ivory towers suffering massive hubris, at the tail end of the Empires days could think such a strategy had any merit whatsoever.

The sanctions against Russia have accelerated the fragmentation of systems while backfiring spectacularly. Consider that India is now buying Russian oil, then exporting it to Europe – at a premium. China is buying Russian crude, refining it in China, and selling it to Europe – at a premium. And the head-choppers (Saudi’s) are buying Russian oil, swapping it out for their own and selling theirs to Europe – at a premium.

Europe is the loser in all situations. They still get Russian energy, they just pay far more for it, eroding their own manufacturing competitiveness, while sending Europeans’ capital to Riyadh, Beijing, Delhi and Moscow for the privilege. Swaps on oil within OPEC are already taking place and will continue.

The effect on the West of U.S. sanctions and military operations against Russia has been to lock Europe into a political and economic Iron Curtain of dependency on the United States, while driving Russia to form closer ties with the US enemies, namely China and Iran.

It is so myopically and comically stupid that only bureaucrats in their ivory towers suffering massive hubris, at the tail end of the Empires days could think such a strategy had any merit whatsoever.

So not only do these sanctions destroy Europe economically, while pushing US enemies closer together but they will inevitably cause Europeans to hate the US…

Take. Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, who accurately said that Brussels has “shot itself in the lungs” with its sanctions.

But for Europe, it is obvious that it is too late. 

See the rest here

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“Less Drag Queens, More Chuck Norris”: Orban Rocks CPAC Texas

Posted by M. C. on August 8, 2022

Tyler Durden's Photo

BY TYLER DURDEN

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/less-drag-queens-more-chuck-norris-orban-rocks-cpac-texas

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has fiercely defended his country’s borders, language and culture, gave a 30-minute speech to a crowd of thousands of American admirers in Dallas on Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC).

He painted a picture of America and Hungary facing twin fronts in a struggle against liberalism, globalists, communists, and “fake news.”

“The West is at war with itself,” he said, adding “The globalist can all go to hell. I have come to Texas.”

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Ukraine Warns ‘Something Should Happen’ to Pipeline Delivering Russian Oil to Hungary

Posted by M. C. on May 28, 2022

https://sputniknews.com/20220526/ukraine-warns-something-should-happen-to-pipeline-delivering-russian-oil-to-hungary-1095802828.html

By Ilya Tsukanov
Sputnik News

Budapest has spent weeks shooting down proposals by Brussels to ban Russian oil and gas in the European Union, with Prime Minister Viktor Orban warning that an embargo on Russian oil would be tantamount to “dropping an atomic bomb” on the Hungarian economy. Hungary purchases about 65 percent of its oil and 85 percent of its gas from Russia.

Kiev should make “something happen” to the Druzhba (“Friendship”) pipeline carrying Russian oil through Ukraine to Hungary to teach Budapest a lesson, Lana Zerkal, an adviser to Ukrainian Energy Minister Herman Haluschenko, has suggested.

“In my view, it would be very appropriate if something happened to the pipeline. But again, this is in the hands of the government and the president – to decide political questions, and whether we really want to speak to Orban in the language he understands and which he is imposing on the European Union”, Zerkal said, speaking at the Kiev Security Forum on Wednesday.

Druzhba is an “excellent lever” with which to influence Hungarian policy, she stressed.

Zerkal’s comments were echoed by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who called for the oil pipeline to be shut down last week, notwithstanding the expected loss of income to the Ukrainian budget via transit fees collected from Russia.

Built in the Soviet days, the massive Druzhba network originates in the Samara region, branching out into Belarus, Ukraine, and the Baltic States, and takes oil westward to Poland and Germany in the north and Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Hungary in the south. Pipelines connecting to Druzhba take oil further west to Austria and south to the Adriatic Sea.

A 1,490 km stretch of the pipeline runs through Ukraine, with Ukrainian government company UkrTransNafta operating it.

Before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, Kiev collected between $2-3 billion in annual transit fees from the oil and gas pumped through the country by Russia to Europe. Gas and oil flows have continued through the past three months, notwithstanding the unprecedented crisis. However, Ukraine moved to suspend the flow of some Russian gas deliveries to Europe earlier this month under the pretext that Moscow was “diverting supplies” – a tactic Russia has repeatedly accused Kiev itself of using.

The proposal to “do something” to Druzhba is part of the broader Ukrainian-Hungarian diplomatic feud, which in addition to geopolitical considerations also has a minority rights component. The spat has its origins in the 2014 Euromaidan coup, when nationalist and pro-Western forces overthrew the government in Kiev and proceeded to enforce social reforms which clamped down on ethnic minorities residing in the country. Over 150,000 Hungarians live in Ukraine’s western Zakarpattia region. Budapest was incensed by a 2017 education law which limited Hungarian-language study to the first four grades of primary school, calling it discriminatory. Kiev refused to repeal or amend the law, which also affected Russian-speaking Ukrainians across the country, to account for its ethnic Hungarian citizens’ interests.

Viktor Orban’s efforts to maintain cordial diplomatic and trade relations with Russia, and Budapest’s refusal to allow NATO to send weapons to Ukraine through Hungary, has further complicated the country’s relations with Kiev. Earlier this month, Orban’s name appeared on the Security Service of Ukraine-curated website Myrotvorets, which publishes the personal information of so-called “enemies of Ukraine”. Several individuals whose names have been posted on the site have been murdered.

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Hungary’s Orban Shoots Down Russian Oil and Gas Embargo Discussions at EU Summit

Posted by M. C. on May 25, 2022

https://sputniknews.com/20220524/hungarys-orban-shoots-down-russian-oil-and-gas-embargo-discussions-at-eu-summit-1095742684.html

Budapest has resisted the European Union’s proposal to ban Moscow’s oil and gas, with its prime minister arguing that the bloc’s sanctions only work “on paper”.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that an agreement on the proposed EU embargo of Russian oil and gas is “very unlikely” to come in the coming days. He went on to argue that the lack of consensus between the European leaders indicated the unproductivity of discussing the sanctions package.

“Looking at the gravity of the issues still open, it is very unlikely that a comprehensive solution could be found before the special meeting of the European Council on 30-31 May,” Orban wrote in a letter to EU Chief Charles Michel, cited by AFP.

The Hungarian prime minister went on to recommend against addressing the issue at upcoming meeting.

Hungary’s stance on the proposed Russian oil embargo remains steadfast, with Budapest continuing to resist Brussels’ move to ban Russia’s energy products. Orban has argued that his country cannot support sanctions against Moscow that undermine Hungarian energy security.

On the contrary, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock voiced optimism that the European Union will reach a consensus on the sixth package of anti-Russian sanctions “soon”, boasting about the EU’s “solidarity”.

According to the German foreign minister, Berlin is also on track to become fully independent from Russian energy in the near future.

Last week, the EC rolled out a €210 billion plan titled REPowerEU that established a bold goal of ditching Russian energy resources by 2027. However, as the Hungarian prime minister pointed out, the plan lacked “[funding] envelopes for the most concerned landlocked member states”. According to him, the proposed sanctions would trigger “serious supply problems” for Budapest and undermine Hungary’s economy.

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Will Viktor Orban Bring Down the House That Davos Built?

Posted by M. C. on April 5, 2022

Hungary standing tall against further European integration while Russia holds serve on its territorial gains in Ukraine would make a powerful argument to most of the Visegrads that there’s an opportunity for life without either Russia or the EU controlling their futures.

Author: Tom Luongo

Today Hungarians go to the polls to decide their future. What they may not realize is that they also are deciding on the future of most of the European continent in the process.

Sitting Prime Minister Viktor Orban is vying for his fourth term in office, having been in power for 12 years and he is under intense opposition from within and without. It’s an open secret that Orban is reviled in Brussels.

And because of his basic sense of common decency and nationalism that means he must be removed from office in order to ensure the full consolidation of power with the European Commission and European Council.

That only happens with his removal and a Brussels-centric puppet controlled by George Soros and the Davos Crowd put in his place. There is a real sense of desperation surrounding this bid to remove Orban.

The formation of a ridiculous Not-Orban coalition of no less than six parties, none of whom would piss in each other’s mouths if their throats were on fire, is pure desperation. It is the apotheosis of the Davos strategy to put in power weak coalitions that can be torn apart at the seams but whose members are also so enamored with being in power they won’t collapse the government as popular opinion turns against them.

This is how Davos engineered Mario Draghi’s takeover in Italy. Five Star Movement cut a deal with the Democrats to oust Lega despite the polls being completely against the idea of such a government after Matteo Salvini pulled out of his coalition with Five Star back in 2019.

Germany’s ‘Traffic Light’ coalition members have almost nothing in common but in no way will you see the FDP, for example, pull out of it with their sinking poll numbers, now just 8%, even though they could. Instead, we see Finance Minister and FDP leader Christian Lindner doing exactly what he was put in power to do, gum up the financial works and prep the stage for the transference of Germany’s power within the EU to the EU.

But all of that unravels if Orban is free for another four years to veto every stupid and belligerent idea that comes out of the European Council. Hungary is already under financing sanctions from the EU over their anti-LGBT laws, threatening to block distributions from the EU budget.

The EU have already gotten the Poles to knuckle under because the Poles are dependent on Germany for gas flows thanks to their own intransigence in cutting deals with Russia for energy.

Hungary, on the other hand, has energy independence from Brussels by having contracted directly with Gazprom for natural gas via Turkstream’s train that goes into Serbia and Hungary. This should give you some context as to why the EU is trying to sanction Serbia and cut off the flows of that pipeline where it crosses EU territory in Bulgaria.

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Can Poland Be Poland—and Stay in the EU? – LewRockwell LewRockwell.com

Posted by M. C. on October 26, 2021

https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/10/patrick-j-buchanan/can-poland-be-poland-and-stay-in-the-eu/

Responding to these threats, Prime Minster Mateusz Morawiecki is accusing the EU of “blackmailing” Poland and holding a “gun to our head.”

“If you want to make Europe into a nation-less superstate,” says Morawiecki, “first gain the consent of all European countries and societies for this.”

By Patrick J. Buchanan

“Let Poland be Poland!”

That was the call of American conservatives, four decades ago, when the Solidarity movement of labor leader Lech Walesa arose in the port city of Gdansk to demand their freedom of the Communist system imposed upon Poland by the Soviet Union after World War II.

A decade later, Poland broke free of the Soviet Bloc and Warsaw Pact, and later joined the European Union and NATO.

The question that has arisen today also has to do with issues of Polish identity and independence.

Specifically, can Poland be Poland — and still remain in the EU?

In recent years, the ruling Law and Justice Party has revised its governmental structures. The judiciary has been subordinated, brought under greater central supervision and control, and a disciplinary chamber has been established and empowered to remove judges.

Such action, says the EU Commission in Brussels, violates basic EU law, which applies to all member states and trumps national law.

Brussels wants the chamber abolished.

Moreover, on issues such as homosexuality, abortion and the media, the Polish government has taken stands more consistent with its Catholic traditions than with the social agenda of a secularized Europe.

The same holds true for the Hungary of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Poland and Hungary are ostracized as “illiberal democracies.”

At a rally of tens of thousands in Budapest Saturday, Orban told supporters that Washington, the EU in Brussels, and billionaire George Soros are using their money, media and networks to bring to power the Hungarian leftist opposition in next April’s parliamentary elections.

“But what matters,” said a defiant Orban, “is not what they in Brussels, in Washington and in the media, which is directed from abroad, want. It will be Hungarians deciding about their own fate.

“Our strength is in our unity … We believe in the same values: family, nation and a strong and independent Hungary.”

Let Hungary be Hungary.

In this social-cultural-moral clash inside the EU, outsider Vladimir Putin comes down on the side of the traditionalists and nationalists in countries where Christianity retains a hold against secularism.

This weekend, Moscow released excerpts of Putin’s blistering attack on a woke West at last week’s gathering of the Valdai Discussion Club in Sochi:

“We’re surprised to see things happening in countries that see themselves as flagships of progress,” said Putin. “The struggle for equality and against discrimination turns into aggressive dogmatism verging on absurdity.

“Opposing racism is a necessary and noble thing, but the new ‘culture of abolition’ turns into ‘reverse discrimination’ … Here in Russia the absolute majority of our citizens don’t care what color a person’s skin is.

“People who dare to say that men and women still exist as a biological fact are almost ostracized … not to mention the simply monstrous fact that children today are taught from a young age that a boy can easily become a girl and vice versa.

“Let’s call a spade a spade: This simply verges on crimes against humanity under the banner of progress.”

In the clash between Poland and the EU, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged that a solution be found acceptable to both, rather than engaging in a long and bitter battle that leaves one side victorious and the other estranged.

Yet, today, Poland is being threatened with economic sanctions, including a possible withholding of annual EU stipends and money set aside for EU nations to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

Responding to these threats, Prime Minster Mateusz Morawiecki is accusing the EU of “blackmailing” Poland and holding a “gun to our head.”

“If you want to make Europe into a nation-less superstate,” says Morawiecki, “first gain the consent of all European countries and societies for this.”

Membership in the EU is popular in Poland, and the government has not threatened a walkout, a “Polexit,” like the “Brexit” that British Tories voted for in 2016 and carried out.

Still, Brussels fears that successful Polish defiance of its demands could lead other EU nations to make demands, and the grand project of creating a European superstate, a One Europe whose member nations are accorded limited rights similar to those of the 50 states of the American Union, could collapse and fall apart.

National governments receive from membership in the EU not only the benefits of open markets, free trade and travel from one nation to another, but also, for nations like Poland and others in eastern and southern Europe, annual transfer of wealth from the EU.

The chokehold the EU has on its members is money. Brussels can cut off the funds transferred annually to Poland, as well as funds voted to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, together a goodly slice of Poland’s GDP.

The questions raised by the rebellious Poles are fundamental: Which takes precedence, when they come into conflict, Poland’s constitution and Poland’s laws, or the laws of the European Union?

Conflict appears inevitable, and the Poles will ultimately have to decide whether their country and constitution transcend EU law, or the reverse is now true.

The Best of Patrick J. Buchanan Patrick J. Buchanan is co-founder and editor of The American Conservative. He is also the author of Where the Right Went Wrong, and Churchill, Hitler, and the Unnecessary War. His latest book is Nixon’s White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever See his website.

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I thought Italy would be next to leave the EU; now I’m convinced it will be Hungary because it looks like Brexit all over again — RT Op-ed

Posted by M. C. on August 30, 2021

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/533124-hungary-leaves-eu-orban-huxit/

Paul A. Nuttall is a historian, author and a former politician. He was a Member of the European Parliament between 2009 and 2019 and was a prominent campaigner for Brexit. I believe Viktor Orban could be readying his country for ‘Huxit’. If he is not, then he is playing a high-stakes game of poker with the overlords in Brussels.

Earlier this week, Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet (Hungarian Nation) ran a headline saying, “it is time to talk about Huxit.” This is a huge development because the newspaper is considered to be the unofficial mouthpiece of Orban’s government.  

Last month, the newspaper announced that “the time has come, now in July 2021, to seriously consider the possibility of our withdrawal from a union of states with a thousand bleeding wounds, showing imperial symptoms, and treating the eastern and central European countries incredibly arrogantly.

The newspaper also stated that there is a culture clash between Western and Eastern European values, something I argued on RT.com last month. Similarly, Magyar Nemzetopined that “our paths have diverged as the West now consciously… breaks from Christian morality and values. Instead, they aim to build a cosmopolitan, faceless world society based on the unbridled self-enjoyment and self-destruction of the individual… we Hungarians, Poles and central and eastern European people hold on to our cultural and religious foundations.”

Reading this came like a welcome dose of déjà vu to an old Brexiteer like myself. All the way back in November 2010, the Daily Express, became the first mainstream British newspaper to come out in favour of the UK leaving the European Union.

The Daily Express announced that “from this day forth our energies will be directed to furthering the cause of those who believe Britain is Better Off Out.” And continued, “after far too many years as the victims of Brussels larceny, bullying, over-regulation and all-round interference, the time has come for the British people to win back their country and restore legitimacy and accountability to their political process.”

See the rest here

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Hungary and Poland Create The Unbridgeable Gap of the Great Reset

Posted by M. C. on November 30, 2020

Through bullying, bad arguments, derision and shaming the relentless pressure of sociopaths and psychopaths wears most people down to the point where they negotiate away something that they didn’t have to.

They get you to agree to putting on a mask to make people feel better, accepting “sensible” gun legislation, voting for the guy who promises to only take 25% of your income versus that guy that wants 40%, etc.

In Brexit talks the EU tried to cleave off Northern Ireland as a cost to Brexit or maintain control over British law through the European Court of Justice.

https://tomluongo.me/2020/11/28/hungary-poland-unbridgeable-gap-great-reset/

Author: Tom Luongo

There comes a point where negotiation becomes surrender. Those actively undermining you will always demand more than their right. Those behind the Great Reset have been creating no-win situations for voters for decades to this exact end.

Over the summer Hungary’s Viktor Orban and Poland’s Mateusz Morawiecki led the opposition to the EU’s budget and COVID-19 relief package standing firm that funds not be tied to any internal political decisions member EU states make.

Both of these countries have incurred the wrath of German Chancellor Angela Merkel over things they do she doesn’t like, invoking Article 7 against Poland over changes made to its Supreme Court, for example.

So, this is nothing new. Neither is the way the EU conducts itself in negotiations.

For the past four years we’ve watched the EU put the United Kingdom through the worst kind of psychological torture over Brexit negotiations which have been anything but.

Fishy Brexit Talks

It’s been a calculated and cynical campaign coordinated with global media, foreign governments, paid political propagandists and intelligence agency operatives.

Through bullying, bad arguments, derision and shaming the relentless pressure of sociopaths and psychopaths wears most people down to the point where they negotiate away something that they didn’t have to.

They get you to agree to putting on a mask to make people feel better, accepting “sensible” gun legislation, voting for the guy who promises to only take 25% of your income versus that guy that wants 40%, etc.

In Brexit talks the EU tried to cleave off Northern Ireland as a cost to Brexit or maintain control over British law through the European Court of Justice.

Negotiation is a natural part of human interaction. There’s nothing inherently wrong with it, as long as both sides approach the negotiation honestly.

But, in politics, especially when dealing with those of a particularly self-righteous leftism so common today — as as shorthand I’ll just call them Commies — negotiation for them is a tactic in a strategic war.

Because at the core of their argument is always the threat of violence at worst and emotional blackmail at best. And that forms the basis for a negotiation that truly isn’t one, but made to look like you have a say in the outcome.

But in reality you don’t. They want all that you have and are willing to take it from you one bite at a time. In fact, the most psychotic of them truly enjoy this process of consuming you slowly.

Brexit negotiations have supposedly come down to how much French fishermen will still be able to plunder British fishing waters even though the U.K. is supposedly a sovereign country. The latest offer from the clueless Michael Barnier is the Brits get tithed 15 to 18% of what the French steal.

BREAKING: the EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier will propose that between 15pc and 18pc of the fish quota caught in UK waters by EU fleets will be restored to the UK under a free trade agreement, @rtenews understands— Tony Connelly (@tconnellyRTE) November 27, 2020

This is supposed to be seen as a breakthrough, according to the breathless regime media. But really it’s an insult. If the U.K. is sovereign and by international law these waters are theirs, then the EU has no rights to them unless the Brits grant them access.

But it seems on this small issue, which has now become symbolic of the entire Brexit process, the U.K. is still saying no. Negotiating even this small point is tantamount to surrender.

And they are right. Because agreeing to anything with these people is ultimately telling them what your price is.

Cigarettes and Blindfolds?

This is why, in all things political from the local to the trans-national, every small victory codified into some rule or same treaty is used as a springboard to the next victory and so on. There is no end to the war until one side achieves total domination or the other side, backed into a corner, stands its ground.

While I’ve used Brexit talks as the metaphor here, it’s not really apropos because Brexit, legally, already happened. In a little over a month there may be no formal relationship between the U.K. and the EU.

For Hungary and Poland, however, the situation is far more existential. And it is why they had to veto the 7-year EU budget and with it the COVID-19 relief package two weeks ago.

This piece of news is truly one of the most historic decisions made by any national leader in 2020. And if not for the U.S. presidential election fraud it may well have been the biggest story of the past month.

Neither Hungary nor Poland have the economic or political power of even the U.K. Together they aren’t close to the U.K. in global influence. And because of that have much more to lose in angering the EU gods in Brussels than the Brits ever did.

It’s why both Prime Ministers Orban and Morawiecki tread lightly and go along with so many terrible edicts that come from the EU — really from France and Germany — against their will.

Both men understand the difficult position their countries are in, trapped between no less than three major powers — the U.S., the EU and Russia. The balancing act between those three powers is, at best, a difficult one. At worst, it’s a complete nightmare.

So them standing tall here is truly a momentous event and most probably a harbinger of big changes coming to the EU. They’ll both be under the most intense pressure to cave. Expect activation of Soros-bots in Hungary.

The smartest thing either could do right now is to open up new rounds of talks with the Russians who just announced they are pretty much done with negotiating anything more with the EU.

That would give them both tremendous leverage with Brussels, by cutting down their list of ‘enemies’ from three to two, even if it means courting further sanctions from Merkel and her new Stasi.

Where the State, as an institution, is at its most pernicious is in providing a vector by which these people, when their arguments are rejected via persuasion, can force them into being through the ballot box or legislative fiat.

And since we all agreed to be governed by these rules, so the argument goes, then you have to submit to the outcome otherwise there is chaos. And that’s the rhetorical and psychological wedge tyrants use to separate you from your liberty and, most importantly, your money.

When in the Course of Human Events…

But what happens when the people in the negotiations lie, cheat, manipulate and bend the rules? What happens when negotiations at one point in time, say July at the European Council Summit, yield one outcome and the final legislation says the exact opposite?

If you are Viktor Orban and Mariusz Moraweiki you stand your ground and realize that anything less than outright rejection is full on surrender, no different than the argument over EU fishing access to UK waters.

This is what these men had to do. Because by tying vague EU standards of what constitutes violations of the ‘rule of law’ to disbursement of funds under the budget is far more than what Hungarians or Poles signed up for when they entered the EU in the first place.

It is precisely because of this creeping centralization of control to the unelected bureaucracy in Brussels that the Brits voted for Brexit, in effect, twice. The second time they did so even more emphatically than in 2016.

Hungary and Poland are very clear as to what their problems are and why they will not budge. Read their joint statement here. The most important part is the final paragraph however.

Our common proposal is to facilitate the speedy adoption of the financial package by establishing a two-track process. On the one hand, to limit the scope of any additional budgetary conditionality to the protection of the financial interests of the Union in accordance with the July conclusions of the European Council. On the other hand, to discuss in the European Council, whether a link between the Rule of Law and the financial interests of the Union should be established. If it is so decided, then the appropriate procedures foreseen by the Treaties, including convening an intergovernmental conference, should be considered in order to negotiate the necessary modification of the Treaties.

Note they use the word ‘negotiation.’ But they also tie the outcome of that negotiation to a modification of the Treaties signed by each member state. In effect, saying, we as heads of state will negotiate the best possible offer, but it will still be up to you, the people, to ratify this.

And if you turn us down, then so be it.

This, of course, is anathema to the World Economic Forum, Open Society Foundation and the rest of the burgeoning technocracy being built through the expansion of powers wielded by the European Commission, which this budget and relief package sought to greatly expand.

We all know how voters choose in Europe when it comes to the European Union and the vote is open, fair and the people well-informed. The EU would never survive such a vote on the amendment of the Treaties which form it.

Orban, especially, knows this. And he has taken on the leadership role in this fight. You know he is effective because they despise him, drawing him up as a cartoonishly evil cross between Snidely Whiplash and Vlad the Impaler.

And despite the massive amount of money Soros spends in Hungary to overthrow Orban it hasn’t worked. So, something will have to be done quickly to remove him from the game board or we’ve reach Peak EU.

Reset This!

See the rest here

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The ceaseless culture war against Hungary – spiked

Posted by M. C. on May 28, 2020

According to the narrative, Hungary’s enactment of emergency measures meant that the normal process of parliamentary democracy had disappeared forever. It is worth noting that other governments that enacted emergency powers in response to the Covid pandemic were not accused of such malevolent intent. Why was Hungary held to a different standard? The answer was devastatingly simple. ‘Orban cannot be trusted’, Western observers implied. It was really another way of saying: ‘We don’t like him.’

What comes of not grabbing your ankles for the EU.

https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/05/27/the-ceaseless-culture-war-against-hungary/

Frank Furedi

 

If you listen to the Western media, you might think that in the weeks following the outbreak of Covid-19 the government of Hungary had transformed itself into a brutal dictatorship. There was a constant stream of articles claiming that democracy had died in Hungary. Opinion pieces insisted that the Hungarian government had exploited people’s concerns about the pandemic to impose a 1930s-style authoritarian dictatorship.

The Covid pandemic has reinvigorated the Culture Wars in various different ways. And these alarmist accounts of democratic backsliding in Hungary were a key theme in these Culture Wars. On the anti-sovereigntist wing of the cultural conflict, Hungary was held up as symbolic of an ideology of evil.

In early May, the mistakenly titled US-based advocacy group Freedom House offered up an obituary on Hungarian democracy. In a report it asserted that, because of the emergency laws it passed in relation to Covid-19, Hungary should not be considered a democracy anymore. Given Freedom House’s longstanding hostility to the Hungarian government, its verdict was hardly surprising. The problem was that this verdict was uncritically repeated in the media. At times it seemed that almost the entire Western media were ganging up against this supposed new dictatorship.

The Economist responded to Hungary’s enactment of a state of emergency by claiming that Viktor Orban, the prime minister, ‘has in effect become a dictator – in the heart of Europe’. The Guardian declared that the ‘world must not let Hungary get away with this power grab’. Writing in the EUobserver, Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, claimed that Hungary was now a dictatorship and therefore the EU had ceased to be a bloc of democratic states.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Ben Kelly ranted that ‘if the EU cannot rein in Hungary’s dictator Viktor Orban, it will rot from the inside’.

 

‘Nothing can justify this destruction of people’s lives’

According to the narrative, Hungary’s enactment of emergency measures meant that the normal process of parliamentary democracy had disappeared forever. It is worth noting that other governments that enacted emergency powers in response to the Covid pandemic were not accused of such malevolent intent. Why was Hungary held to a different standard? The answer was devastatingly simple. ‘Orban cannot be trusted’, Western observers implied. It was really another way of saying: ‘We don’t like him.’

Strikingly, these opinions did not change when, in late April, Die Welt reported that legal experts in the European Commission had said that they saw no reason to act against the supposedly authoritarian powers the Hungarian parliament granted to the Hungarian government. Inconvenient truths about Hungary are always met with a wall of silence in most of the Western press. If, on the other hand, these experts had said the opposite, there would have been wall-to-wall opinion articles praising their judgment and condemning Hungary.

And now there has been a development. This week, the Hungarian government initiated procedures to end the state of emergency. It will end on 20 June. This means Hungary has acted more speedily than many other governments to bring to a close its Covid measures. Will those who spread the idea that Hungary had become a dictatorship acknowledge that they were wrong? Will they apologise for their slanderous statements about Hungary? Don’t hold your breath. It really doesn’t matter what the Hungarian government does; its adversaries in the West will always portray it as a dangerous dictatorship threatening European values.

No doubt, some might argue that Hungary is rescinding these laws precisely because of the international pressure they put on it. But of course, supposedly authoritarian dictatorships are not known for giving up their powers just because of some criticism in the foreign press. ‘Hungary still isn’t a democracy’, others will no doubt cry. In which case, why did it need the emergency powers in the first place? Why didn’t it just carry on being the dictatorship it already was, in the Hungary-haters’ eyes?

 

Why the people must take back control

In the current Culture Wars, Hungary has become a kind of lightning rod through which the negative sentiments of the Western cultural establishment – especially their anti-sovereigntist views – can be expressed. Throughout most of Europe and the Anglo-American world, the hegemony of the cultural elite remains intact. It is rarely questioned. Though millions of people resent the values of these elites, very few have the voice or the courage openly to question them. When they do – for example, in the vote for Brexit – they are bombarded with immense pressure to shut up and know their place. That is the case even in Trump’s America, where millions feel they have to mind what they say.

In Hungary, support for the Hollywood, Netflix, Big Tech globalist value system is quite weak. Of course, given its broad influence, the global media does have some influence in Hungary. But it is not hegemonic. Consequently, the people and their representatives are able to express opinions and values that are vilified in many parts of the Western world. In the eyes of the Western media, the refusal of the Hungarian government to accept the moral authority of the leaders of the EU or of the Hollywood woke consensus is a kind of cultural heresy. Like the Stalinist heresy-hunters of the 20th century, the globalist culture warriors will use everything in their power to humiliate their opponents and force them to fall in line with the ‘right’ way of thinking.

The cultural elites’ obsession with Hungary is not entirely about Hungary. Whenever a British, German or American newspaper editor or observer denounces the ‘dictatorship’ in Hungary, they are also indirectly attacking movements and politicians in their own countries who oppose the prevailing cultural norms. That is why those of us who supported Brexit in the UK, and who call for the valuation of national sovereignty in countries around the world, have a real interest in supporting Hungary against its Western detractors.

Frank Furedi’s How Fear Works: The Culture of Fear in the Twenty-First Century is published by Bloomsbury Press.

Be seeing you

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Brussels Shows Its Fear of Euroskeptics

Posted by M. C. on March 11, 2019

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/03/10/brussels-shows-its-fear-of-euroskeptics.html

Tom LUONGO

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been under fire from the European Union for years for his opposition to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s open immigration policy.

A policy which she herself has had to pull back on. And no matter how far Merkel has changed her stance and acceded to the reality of the damage her policy has created, Orban is still guilty of the sin of non-compliance.

Actually, he’s guilty of a whole lot more than that. Because Orban has not only stepped on the third-rail of European politics he’s stomped up and down while taking a massive dump on it.

That third-rail, of course, is naming names. Naming the very person who controls so much of EU policy through his co-opting large swaths of the European parliament.

That person, of course, is George Soros.

Now there is a push, ahead of May’s European Parliamentary elections, to kick Orban’s dominant Fidesz party out of the European People’s Party (EPP), a nominal center-right coalition and the largest single party within the EU parliament.

And with each victory over Soros Orban grows even bolder. After a successful re-election campaign predicated on the slogan, “Don’t Let Soros Win,” Orban has banned Soros’ major NGO, Open Society Foundation, as well as forced out his Central European University.

But his biggest sin was equating outgoing European Commission President Jean-Claude “When things get tough you have to lie” Juncker with Soros’ attempts to weaken Hungary’s border… Read the rest of this entry »

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