Published: 2.7.2023
„We go to the wall holding hands, we stop, we hug each other” – this is how Viktor Orbán nonchalantly characterised the negotiations on EU funds during one of his recent pronouncements in Tusványos. Fidesz’s prime minister seemed (more) confident at the time, but now, even if he shoves his hands in his pockets with fake confidence while he parades up and down, the haste and uncertainty can be felt viscerally in his actions.
One could say that Orbán did go all the way to the wall, as he promised, but instead of turning around and hugging, he got his head smashed into the concrete in Brussels, which made him dizzy, and since then he has been shadow-boxing his way into position. Over the last decade he has grown accustomed to drawing to 19, because he usually gets a good hand, but now he is not necessarily the man to shuffle the deck.
The confusion and haste is reflected in the ever more absurd lies they are trying to raise the stakes with in the chicken game: now, for example, they are stirring people up with utter nonsense about the EU budget. Orbán in the old days was a genuinely clever strategist who was always three steps ahead of his opponents, but now he seems to have lost his big-player character and, after the slaps from the EU, has started to drift, and the minimal off-track performance is mostly down to luck and a few fresh wits around him and, let us be honest, the sometimes not very solid performance of his opponents.
Putin underestimated Ukraine and his own position, and Orbán underestimated the European Union when he thought he would force the resource freezers to back down with his usual bluster, veto bluff and talk-rockets, as he has indeed managed to do on numerous occasions in the past. But now the wall has come and, despite running into it, it has remained in place.
Orbán and Fidesz, instead of meeting the rule of law requirements, amending the necessary legislation, rebuilding democratic state systems and dismantling the corrupt NER edifice, are stalling, playing smart and trying to get out of their obligations for getting the EU subsidies.
For a long time, they have been looking for an explanation for the continued blocking of funds, because they never take responsibility for anything, and now they need a reason to which they can point. After and instead of the provocation, which was said to be aimed at protecting children, the issue of refugees, the well-established ‘quota’ and, most recently, the matter of aid to Ukraine, have become the communication solution for the time being.
In other words, we are not getting the money from Brussels because we are not doing what is expected of us, but because this bastard Brussels has already spent the billions we are owed on weapons for Ukraine, and on top of that they want to force hordes of migrants on us, which we are, of course, not going to let happen, so there, this is why we are not getting the money.
The reality is that the EU’s seven-year budget is reviewed regularly and automatically, and that is what is happening now., which Orbán and his mates know perfectly well. They amend the budget every week if they have to; let us leave it at that. It is also complete nonsense and a lie that the coffers are empty, because a large part of the programmes are funded on an annual basis, so the Horizon 2026 money, for example, could not be spent last year.
Orbán and his mates know this perfectly well. When the current seven-year budget was adopted, we were still far from the Russian aggression taking place, so the money related to the conflict in Ukraine can only be used by reallocation, of course, which is partly what the proposed adjustment is about, but it does not mean a loss of resources. Not to mention that one of the central elements of the current mid-term review is precisely to allocate more money to a coherent EU-level response to the refugee issue, such as strengthening common border management and closer cooperation with the so-called ‘sending countries’.
Orbán and his mates know this perfectly well, and it is they who have been demanding this from the Commission for a long time. The funds that Hungary is entitled to are available – for example, the money for teachers’ wage increases is not frozen either, it is up to the Hungarian government to decide whether to draw down this item by pre-financing it; but they would rather continue to lie about it. All the government would have to do to use the funds that we are entitled to is to fulfil the rule of law conditions appropriately. Orbán and his mates know this perfectly well. Yet they are not doing so, but continue with the communications blitz.
I used to think that the referendum on the sex-change operation for kindergarten children was the most absurd and despicable propaganda attempt of the Fidesz era, but the statements now being made by prominent figures in the governing party about Hungarian EU funds being spent in Ukraine will also earn a podium place in history books. Recently, in a bizarre coup attempt, the Russian bear was found to have worn out his claws and his famous sense of smell is not what it used to be, either. Orbán’s legend of infallibility and his wall-running stunts are also clearly worn out. If not naked, the emperor is awkward and almost ridiculous in those size-inappropriate boxers. One thing he can be sure of: every system fails at some point. Including his.
dr. István Ujhelyi
Member of the European Parliament / Founder of the Community of Chance
2/7/2023