Mastodawn

Volt Europa 1d ago

Viktor Orbán has turned Hungary into a Trojan horse inside the European Union. And the problem is - our current rules allow this to keep happening 🤯

Orbán’s foreign minister was calling Moscow during breaks in EU meetings to give his Russian counterpart “live updates” on what we were discussing.

Think about that for a second.

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#Orban #Hungary #Uktraine #Russia #Putin #EUpol #Volt

Volt Europa 1d ago

EU leaders are sitting together trying to figure out how to respond to Russia’s war against Ukraine - and someone in the room is allegedly briefing the Kremlin in real time.

No wonder Donald Tusk said he no longer shares sensitive information in Council meetings. Trust inside the EU is being destroyed.

As long as one government can block everything with a veto while undermining the Union from the inside, Europe will remain weak.

It’s time to abolish the veto.

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Volt Europa 1d ago

And it’s time to be honest: Europe cannot function if one leader keeps acting against the interests of the entire Union.

We need a United States of Europe now.

[Damian Boeselager, MEP of Volt Europa]

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@VoltEuropa Hungary could have EU voting rights suspended.
Unlike abolishing the veto, this is a procedure already specified in current Treaties.
Why doesn't the EU Commission trigger it?

@s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa Because it needs unanimity of the rest of the member-states. And there's Fico.

@jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa Fico rules a coalition of 3 political parties. If a EU procedure is started against Slovakia and Slovakia ends up losing EU funds like Hungary, Fico's government won't hold.
That's why the only country vetoing any action against Russia is Hungary.
Fico can bark, but, if he bites, he won't be PM for much longer.

Toni Aittoniemi 22h ago

@s1m0n4 @jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa Exactly. This is enough proof of malicious intent to suspend Hungary’s voting rights. No need to let it get worse!

We need to act. Letting bullies get their way never did anything good, ever.

Veza85UE 20h ago

@gimulnautti @jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa Yes, but the "WE" in question is not the Commission, it's our national governments. @s1m0n4 the Commission already triggered this procedure. In September 2018. And no, the first vote in the #WTFIstheCouncil is not a unanimity vote, it's simple QMV. It would have sent shockwaves through financial markets and the Hungarian elections. But the EU member statelets refuse to touch Orban's veto so they can protect their own.

@Veza85UE @gimulnautti @jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa well, the Councillors can change their minds and vote again for article 7 with rights suspension for Hungary.
Let's be clear: Orbàn and Hungary can now face criminal charges. I'm sure being a spy for Putin is in breach of EU treaties. The EJC can even directly request the dismissal of the Hungarian Commissioner in the Council of Commissioners.

Veza85UE 8h ago

@s1m0n4 @gimulnautti @jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa
"You can just DO things!"
"Can't."
"Why tf not??"
"It will upset the fascists. 🥺"

(Also, it might eat into Hans Dieter's profits here, but shhhh. We don't talk about that...🤫)

https://timesofmalta.com/article/long-read-how-orban-played-germany-europes-great-power.922312

@Veza85UE @gimulnautti @jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa the German industrial ecosystem is so colluded with Russian oligarchs and authorities that we don't even know the full extent of it.

They even have a shadow post office system in Berlin that is sending packages to Russia.

https://www.politico.com/news/2026/03/07/mail-tracking-tariffs-berlin-moscow-00798601

The little shipping company that’s making Europe’s sanctions look silly

A German logistics firm exploits gaps in European law to ship contraband to Russia. We know because we followed their illicit route from a Berlin supermarket to Moscow.

Politico

Veza85UE 8h ago

@s1m0n4 @gimulnautti @jorgecandeias @VoltEuropa Speaking of... I will not click on Mathias Döpfner's #PoliticoIsTrash but yes, I've read about it from other sources.
There is a business case to be made for Rule of Law not as an impediment to profits but as essential to businesses, just like there's a business case for climate change mitigation. Floods and fire ruin factories and make the insurance industry increasingly unviable. Hollowing out 🇪🇺 RoL for Audi profits undermines the Single Market.

Jorge Candeias 21h ago

@s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa and the EU can't do that because there's Orban.

They scratch eachother's back.

Once Orban loses the next election, though, everything changes. We won't hear a peep from Slovakia anymore.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa No, he's right about Fico, he can be bought (and has dumped Orban in the past). The procedure has been blocked by member states since 2018. The first vote to move on with it does not require unanimity, it's in the legislative Council (the one where ministers of national governments sit and make EU law and then pretend "Brussels" imposes things on them), not in the more famous EUCO. No unanimity needed and it would have wrecked Orban's elections chances.

Jorge Candeias 19h ago

@Veza85UE @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa Would it tough?

Orbán's whole strategy was to blame the old mean blue brussels monster for everything that went wrong in this rule. Any act by the EU that could be presented as hostile would be giving him ammo.

As nobody gave him that ammo, he's going to lose (unless he pulls some sort of last minute fraud, that is).

I won't discuss the rest, as it's useless. The problem will solve itself soon enough.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa Tanking the forint would have focused minds very quicikly (for an economy that's weaker than even Liz Truss' was) and nothing from my experience with Hungarians can convince me anybody but those who are still onboard after all the poverty and the pedophilia scandals and the obvious corruption would have suffered in silence next to Dear Leader. But it would have also been important for Rule of Law in the EU in general. Nobody cares about it though.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa Also, I realise this was probably not your intent, but that's a very cavalier attitude to have, one hundreds of thousands of young(ish) Hungarians who've had to leave their country over the last decade as Viktor Orban wrecked the state and their democracy aided and abetted by OUR governments, can't really afford.

Jorge Candeias 19h ago

@Veza85UE @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa Yeah, well, we'd be much, much MUCH worse off if we stupidly gave ammo unnecessarily not only to the Hungarian fascists, but also to everybody else's. Particularly to the German and French ones.

Politics rarely deals with what's ideal. It deals with what's possible.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa No reason to pretend this wasn't possible back in January 2024. Oh no, not the Fidesz electorate is such a flimsy excuse for the EU member statelets refusing to set a precedent because they value their veto and opportunity to keep a knee on the EU's neck far more than they value Rule of Law or even helping Ukraine win.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa (It WOULD upset German car makers in Hungary a great deal, I bet. I'll give you that...)

Jorge Candeias 19h ago

@Veza85UE @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa Back in january 2024 the threat worked as intended. Orbán U-turned after making a lot of noise. Only to start making a lot of noise shortly after, true, but a number of things moved in the interim. That was the whole point of the threat. And of the leak.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa He's not making noise now, it's been months blocking the 90 billions for Ukraine. Again, I agree with you that it's not "possible" for any German government, let alone a CDU-led one, to upset German business interests in Hungary, but let's not act like it's "art of the possible" rather than "art of the highly convenient". This is how we got here in the first place. Because business was prioritised over Rule of Law in the EU.

https://timesofmalta.com/article/long-read-how-orban-played-germany-europes-great-power.922312

Long read: How Orbán played Germany, Europe’s great power

In Orbán's Hungary, German multinationals get preferential treatment

Times of Malta

Jorge Candeias 19h ago

@Veza85UE @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa The rule of law in the EU will never survive internal economic warfare. Or the EU, for that matter.

We already had a taste of that during the sovereign debt crisis. It was ugly and for a while the cracks in the whole building were very visible.

Anyway, thanks for the conversation, but I'm running out of time for it. Cheers.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa No problem. I'll just say this: there are Hungarians in civic society who already feel the way Serbian students feel about "the EU" (not just Germany, with the complicity of all our governments). These are people whose lives and trajectories have been deeply affected by the EU's failure to give af about Rule of Law over the profits of Audi, BMW et al. They're a handful, so who cares, but I'm ashamed of the EU when talking to them.

Veza85UE 19h ago

@jorgecandeias @s1m0n4 @VoltEuropa "Your democracy may die, but that's a sacrifice I'm willing to make for the sake of not bothering Audi et al" is just not the kind of big-brained take I'm willing to say to their faces.