The Washington Post's Lee Hockstader, writing today about the damage Hungary's Putin puppet Viktor Orban is doing within the Western alliance and the European Union (EU):
"It matters little that Orban has driven Hungary’s economy into a ditch, or that its economic output and population of 10 million are tiny fractions of the E.U.’s total. What counts is that Hungary, Putin’s Trojan horse in the heart of Europe, has weaponized the E.U.’s rules on Moscow’s behalf.
Orban, a darling of U.S. Republicans, has gutted Hungary’s democracy and made a sham of baseline E.U. expectations of its members: judicial independence, media freedom, minority rights, fair elections and tolerance.
That tragedy, for Hungarians and for Europe, will become farce next summer when Hungary takes over the rotating E.U. presidency, a role that grants Orban agenda-setting powers for a six-month term.
That bully pulpit will afford him the chance to embarrass the E.U. by showcasing his obstructionism, especially on Ukraine. But the broader threat he represents inside the alliance is real owing to the E.U.’s antiquated voting rules, including the requirement of unanimity of all member states on security and finance questions." (our emphasis)
Hockstader proposes that the EU drop its delusions about "unity" and see the Trojan Horse threat that Orban represents to it, and act on it:
"The Hungarian strongman, having already wreaked economic havoc in his country, is unbothered by even worse living standards and growth rates. As Daniel Hegedüs of the German Marshall Fund of the United States explained to me, 'his main strategic priority is regime stability; he wants his regime to survive.'
The E.U. has no mechanism to expel a member state. So if changing the rules to contain the damage Orban can do is what it takes to marginalize him, then it’s time for the E.U. to change them. Let 2024 be the year the West removes the scales from its eyes." (or emphasis)
It's absurd that provision wasn't made for the expulsion of a rogue member, considering Europe's long history of shifting alliances and nationalism. As a NATO member, Hungary presents the same problem it does to the EU: does it pretend the problem doesn't exist, or does it find ways to remove or at least mitigate the internal security threat?
