MEP Gyöngyösi: When will we see “Zeitenwende” in Europe?

Twenty years later, the Socialist bloc was nothing but history.

Democracy prevailed, Germany was reunited, the Soviet Union collapsed, and the Central European nations, getting free of the Soviet grip, were looking towards Europe. Back then, many people believed the Ostpolitik concept would remain successful for a long time, as it offered dialogue and concrete economic advantages in return for political reforms, with larger overall gains for the West, of course.

Unlike Germany’s foreign policy ideas however, times changed.

In the 2010s, it became increasingly obvious that the pragmatic, business-focused policy was no longer able to pacify eastern despots. In fact, it encouraged them even more. While Germany exposed itself to Russian energy import to a dangerous degree, Putin was steering Russia back to the road of Stalinism with an iron grip. While the new EU member states seemed to show a slow but steady convergence to the West according to the statistical data, the period in fact gave rise to such populist politicians who, beside the benevolence of the German government, attempted to build up oligarchies and kept voicing anti-EU messages. The “most successful” of these politicians was Viktor Orbán, who now openly works towards getting Hungary leave the EU and join the Russian sphere of interest.

As an ironic twist of fate, the beginning of the Ostpolitik was heralded by a Social Democrat chancellor and its end was also stated by a Social Democrat chancellor fifty years later, when Olaf Scholz drew the conclusions of the Ukraine war and announced the slogan of “Zeitenwende”, thus making clear that politics can have a consideration for values, too.

Democracy must be protected and if anyone attacks another sovereign state with military force, they must be stopped.

In contrast, Berlin’s Central European policy seems to be frozen in time. Although their relations with Orbán are not nearly as friendly as they used to be, Germany’s business interests still appear to be the dominant aspect at the end of the day, despite the fact that the genie is already out of the bottle, with authoritarian leaders like Orbán now openly questioning democracy and supporting Putin’s war in Ukraine. 

This situation poses an unprecedented internal threat to the European Union. 

Of course, no person with any common sense would wish for the destruction of German-Hungarian relations, but we can reasonably expect the German industry not to do business with Fidesz-friendly oligarchs and serve Orbán’s regime. The reason is simple: the regime they want to be on good terms with now, will eventually turn against them, just as Putin’s Russia did. The more they invest in it, the more damage they will suffer. This is easy to see even with a very pragmatic approach.

Disclaimer: the sole liability for the opinions stated rests with the author(s). These opinions do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Parliament.

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