Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has become Vladimir Putin’s main ally in Europe. He not only considers that the sanctions that the European Union has established against Russia are actually “a step towards war”, within a “dangerous” strategy in the conflict in Ukraine but now threatens to block the approval of the budget of 18,000 million euros with which Europe wants to help Ukraine to keep its institutions running despite the war.
Orbán’s position has exploded the old Visegrad Group that groups the countries of Eastern Europe together with the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland, precisely because of Orbán’s reluctance to follow the common line against the Russian dictatorship. What’s more, in recent months, while Hungary has been sinking diplomatically, Poland is becoming a military power that is taking great advantage of its strategic position as a bridge between NATO and Ukraine and is taking advantage of it to strengthen itself extraordinarily.
For now, Hungary has only stated that it opposes the delivery of those 18,000 million but for now it has not done anything to prevent the procedure from continuing. to process your approval. Once the Commission has put it on the table, as it is an issue that affects the budget, it needs to be ratified by all the member countries, that is, there will come a time when the ambassadors will have to say whether they approve or not. measure.
However, in his latest statements, Orbán had hinted that this idea is not attractive to him. “Anyone who intervenes economically in a military conflict take a position,” said the Hungarian national-conservative leader in a radio interview in which he went so far as to warn that with EU policy “little by little we are slipping towards war.”
One of the most weighty arguments when opposing sanctions against Russia is the catastrophic economic situation in the country, with negative growth rates and one of the highest inflation rates in the EU, especially in food.
party to the conflict
The country has not received recovery aid because it refuses to assume the rule of law recommendations on which those funds legally depend. So far it has managed to be allowed to continue buying Russian oil, of which is fully dependent, and wants neither more sanctions nor more money for Ukraine: «Now we supply destructive weapons, we train Ukrainian soldiers on our own territory, we impose energy sanctions. We actually become part of the conflict. They’re not shooting at us yet, but we’re about to become belligerent. Europe is playing a very dangerous game.”
One of the arguments that weigh the most when opposing sanctions against Russia is the catastrophic economic situation in the country.
The Czech Republic has already decided to boycott a meeting of the Visegrad Group, which had established itself as one of the most decisive associations of countries within the EU, not always according to the official Brussels line, as a counterweight to the big Western countries. . The situation benefits Poland, which also maintains a fight with the European Commissionbut it has managed to put this debate aside to establish itself as the most decisive country in managing the conflict in Ukraine in every way, aided by South Korea, which provides it with the bulk of its military technology.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism