Original Financial Times article (behind paywall)
The European Union will sabotage Hungary’s economy if Budapest blocks fresh aid to Ukraine at a summit this week, under a confidential plan drawn up by Brussels, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.
Brussels has outlined a strategy to explicitly target Hungary’s economic weaknesses, imperil its currency and drive a collapse in investor confidence in a bid to hurt “jobs and growth” if Budapest refuses to lift its veto on the aid to Kyiv, the newspaper reported, citing a document drawn up by EU officials.
Notorious for many bitter feuds with the EU during his 13 years in power, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has become a vocal critic of the bloc’s support for Ukraine and boasted about his ties with the Kremlin since Russia went to war in Ukraine in February 2022.
The document seen by FT declares that “in the case of no agreement in the February 1 [summit], other heads of state and government would publicly declare that in the light of the unconstructive behaviour of the Hungarian PM . . . they cannot imagine that” EU funds would be provided to Budapest.
It’s high time that Hungarians decide if they want in the EU or not. The sooner they make that decision the better.
And yes I fully realize that the democratic process is broken in Hungary, and that any attempt to pretend this will be a democratic decision will fail, and that Hungarians will have to take to the streets eventually.
No way around it. I’m their neighbor and we’ve been through this stuff ourselves and it was hard but it’s something that needs to be done if they hope to ever regain democracy. Eternal vigilance and all that. Postponing it only makes it worse.
We will stand with them but it’s not a problem we can solve for them.