EU summit – Opposition: Orbán ‘suffered defeat’
The opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) has insisted that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán suffered a defeat at the European Union summit on Thursday.
DK MEP Klára Dobrev told an online news conference today that Orbán “might have thought he could sell his defeat at home as a victory”, but it soon became clear that “not a single letter” of the proposal made by the European Parliament and the European Council on rule-of-law protections had changed.
Nevertheless, Orbán gave up his planned veto of the EU budget, she added.
Dobrev noted that EU Commissioner Vera Jourova and MEP Petri Sarvamaa, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator, expected a European court ruling on the rule-of-law provision — a key concession to Hungary and Poland — in a matter of months rather than years.
Meanwhile, it was reaffirmed, she said, that the legislation would come into force on Jan. 1 after Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte requested clarification.
“After that, it would be hard to maintain that Viktor Orbán left Brussels victorious,” Dobrev said.
Still, Hungarians, she said, will receive EU subsidies. “Businesses, families, NGOs, health care and local governments won,” the DK politician added.
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Source: MTI
I partly disagree with the opposition. In my opinion, everyone lost. Obviously, Orban the bully lost because he was eventually forced to give up his veto. On the other hand, all of us EU citizens who naïvely believed that the principles upon which the Union was made, i.e. rule of law, liberalism ( something very different from liberism ) freedom and pluralism of media, democracy etc. are not to even become subject of negotiations while, instead, should be obvious and taken for granted, all of us we also lost. And we lost because Van Der Leyen, Merkel etc. were not brave enough to enforce this simple conditio sine qua non, that, again, we all thought was obvious in the EU: acceptance of rule of law as condition for the deal or else no funds for you, mr. Orban. No compromise on rule of law. Instead, the EU chose to keep funding a man who is a de facto dictator, and his gang of oligarchs.
Everyone lost, only winner is: illiberalism.
The earlier the EU realises that Orban’s Hungary is a Trojan horse, and that orbanism ( which is modelled on erdoğanism ) is a poisonous virus, the better.
To all the negative say-sayers, i say this;
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/509426-cameron-brexit-uk-eu-hungary-poland/
Had the British leaders shown the balls, Brexit wouldnn’t have been necessary. The Central Europeans stuck around for the fight. Nobody came to join the EU carrying a hand basket with their Culture, Identity, Language and Traditions to hand over to a bunch in Brussels to dispose of. The idea and treaties were to ensure they could keep them and accelerate the Economy on the world scale, something other countries would like seen destroyed and even speculators like Soros, for gains. The EU & Europe won!