MEP Gyöngyösi: Growing contrast between Croatia and Hungary

The context for this post is given by the news that Croatia is going to adopt the EURO as of 1 January 2023 and, if everything goes according to the plans, the country will join the Schengen zone as well. It is in stark contrast with my homeland, Hungary, which is taking long strides on the way out of the European Union.

Back then, who would have thought that the “ranking” of the two countries will be reversed?

After the difficulties of the 1990s, Croatia could only join the EU in 2013, with a significant backlog compared to the rest of the region. However, the country has been able to demonstrate its ability to utilize the opportunities lying in European integration. Taking no more than ten years after its accession, Croatia will be able to join the EU’s “innermost circles”, i.e., Schengen and the Eurozone. I think the latter appears to be an even larger achievement as EU member states are required to meet famously strict economic conditions to adopt the common currency. After lapping several countries that had joined earlier, Croatia was able to meet all those requirements.

It’s natural to compare the country’s performance to that of Hungary which was Central Europe’s proud leader in terms of living standards back in the 1990s, but is now considered as one of the stragglers.

Although Hungary became an EU member as early as in 2004, the accession to the Eurozone is nowhere in sight. In fact, the Fidesz government stipulated in the Constitution that the Forint will remain Hungary’s currency. We are talking about the same Forint that has been sinking to historical lows over the past 6 months compared to the Euro. Our currency is being devalued at an astonishing rate while the government regulates food and fuel prices in a feeble attempt to hide the problem from the citizens. If you look at the economy, you see an increasingly gloomy picture with devalued money and an impending commodity shortage resulting from the regulated prices. As far as the political environment is concerned, the Hungarian government, having realized its complete isolation in Europe, is now making ever larger gestures to Moscow, to the point where PM Viktor Orbán used his usual Friday radio interview to joke about how little chance Ukraine has in the war.

This doesn’t mean that the people of Hungary are against the European Union or the adoption of the Euro, in fact.

Under the current circumstances however, when Orbán’s regime uses the Hungarian authorities to block opposition parties so he doesn’t even need to commit electoral fraud to win the elections due to the government’s huge dominance in resources and media, pro-Europe opinions are hardly heard in the public discourse. I hope that the European Union’s institutions soon realize the importance of holding member state governments accountable for European values and the democratic rule of law, since not all countries seem to function as well as Croatia.

Until they come to that realization however, we can do nothing but envy our south western neighbours…

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