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Finally!
Well, get on with it then.
Are we finally willing to show that acts come with consequences?
Nah, this is all part of the show. Orbán got big and stays big on EU money. His domestic policy has mostly been converting the country into a client state for German manufacturing. The biggest protests under his term were against laws put in place for big German manufacturing companies.
He just recently got the money they were withholding until he comes around the important issues. This resolution is just virtue signalling, they know Fico or even Meloni will block this.
Acts really have consequences. Funding Orbán’s regime for more than a decade has enabled him to be the “sand in the machinery, the thorn under the nail, the stick between the spokes for the EU” (his words), and some might say he’s a convenient scapegoat for people in the EU who want to kill popular initiatives. I suspect far more people want to stop Ukrainian aid than they admit it publically, for example.
In any case, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon, his party has a constitutional supermajority, if he wants he can rewrite the election laws overnight. He owns a lot of the opposition parties, probably has heavy influence in the rest.
He also personally, not through the office or the states, but through strawmen owns most of the country, all media, all universities and institutions of higher education, most of the infrastructure, all telecommunication and internet companies, a significant portion of the hotel industry, mines, power plants, construction, hell, even most of the office buildings in Budapest. He is planning to buy Budapest Airport now.
Well, maybe the strawmen or the party will turn on him? No, happened already, the guys are either no longer in politics, or no longer in the country.
The only thing that can end that is stopping EU subsidies. Yeah, maybe that will bankrupt the country, but the country will sooner go bankrupt than be able to elect someone else.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
A cross-party coalition of 120 Members of the European Parliament demand Hungary be stripped of its voting rights over the country’s democratic backsliding and Viktor Orbán’s “unacceptable” use of veto power.
The text cites two main reasons to defend the unprecedented step: Hungary’s continued democratic backsliding, a recurring cause of concern in Brussels, and Orbán’s controversial role in the EU summit of December.
Approving the special fund, known as the Ukraine Facility, has become a matter of extreme urgency as Brussels has already run out of money to send to Kyiv, and Washington is stuck in a legislative impasse with no breakthrough in sight.
“The success of the letter demonstrates a clear willingness in the Parliament to launch Article 7.2, but above all, it highlights the urgency of addressing Viktor Orbán’s actions,” Sarvamaa said in an emailed statement.
Still, the call from the hemicycle is symbolic and exposes one key shortcoming in the shared mission: activating the second phase of Article 7 cannot come from the Parliament itself, meaning lawmakers can do nothing but pile political pressure on the Commission and member states.
But leaders like Italy’s Giorgia Meloni and Slovakia’s Robert Fico are unlikely to back a move as radical as the suspension of voting rights, which would effectively turn Hungary into a powerless, second-class member state.
The original article contains 860 words, the summary contains 215 words. Saved 75%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
