How the E.U. Allowed Hungary to Become an Illiberal Model

THE NEW YORK TIMES: After years of complacency and wishful thinking, Brussels is finally trying to rein in the country’s pugnacious leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary in June. The position he has put the bloc in says much about why it has stumbled in the face of populist challenges. | Bernadett Szabo/Reuters
BRUSSELS — After long indulging him, leaders in the European Union now widely consider Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary an existential threat to a bloc that holds itself up as a model of human rights and the rule of law.

Mr. Orban has spent the past decade steadily building his “illiberal state,” as he proudly calls Hungary, with the help of lavish E.U. funding. Even as his project widened fissures in the bloc, which Hungary joined in 2004, his fellow national leaders mostly looked the other way, committed to staying out of one another’s affairs.

But now Mr. Orban’s defiance and intransigence has had an important, if unintended, effect: serving as a catalyst for an often-sluggish European Union system to act to safeguard the democratic principles that are the foundation of the bloc.

Early this year, the European Court of Justice will issue a landmark decision on whether the union has the authority to make its funds to member states conditional on meeting the bloc’s core values. Doing so would allow Brussels to deny billions of euros to countries that violate those values. » | Steven Erlanger and Benjamin Novak | Monday, January 3, 2022

Orban bekommt Unterstützung von Trump: Ungarns rechtsnationaler Ministerpräsident will im April wiedergewählt werden. Dafür hat er prominente Unterstützung: Donald Trump. In dessen Augen hat Orban einen „wundervollen Job“ gemacht. »

'Secret' German Plan to Resettle 500,000 Syrian Refugees across Europe Unveiled This Week

EXPRESS: SECRET plans to bring up to 500,000 Syrian refugees into the European Union (EU) from Turkey are to be unveiled by Germany this week.

According to the Hungarian prime minister, EU and Turkish leaders are set to announce a behind-the-scenes agreement to resettle hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the war in Syria.

It is not known how many of the 500,000 will arrive in Britain, but fears have been raised that a significant number could be drawn to the UK by its relatively generous welfare system.

It comes just days after the EU agreed a €3billion (£2.1bn) funding package for Turkey in return for their help in stemming the flow of migrants passing through on their way to Europe.

Hungary's PM Viktor Orban warned of a "nasty surprise" for Europeans when the deal is announced in the coming days.

He said: "The issue [of resettlement] will be a hot potato in the coming period because even though this could be kept in a semi-secret state...someone somewhere - I think in Berlin this week - will announce that 400,000-500,000 Syrian refugees could be brought straight from Turkey to the EU.

"This nasty surprise still awaits Europeans." » | Tom Batchelor | Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Migration Threatens European Civilisation, Says Hungary PM

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: 'There is no way back from a multicultural Europe' says Viktor Orban, who warns decisions Europe makes on migration now will affect it forever

Mass migration threatens European civilisation, Hungary's controversial Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Tuesday.

"Today mass migration is taking place around the globe that could change the face of Europe's civilisation. If that happens, that is irreversible," Mr Orban said at a conference in honour of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who recently turned 85.

"There is no way back from a multicultural Europe. Neither to a Christian Europe, nor to the world of national cultures," Mr Orban added.

He insisted that migration needs to be addressed seriously. "If we make a mistake now, it will be forever," Mr Orban, 52, said. » | Agencies | Tuesday, June 02, 2015