UNITED, WE FALL: EXPELLING AUTOCRATIC STATES FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION
UNITED, WE FALL: EXPELLING AUTOCRATIC STATES FROM THE EUROPEAN UNION
Whether there is the political will to achieve the required unanimity to effect expulsion remains unclear.
Does it remain unclear? Especially considering that the far right won a fairly large chunk of the Parliament seats in the latest election, it seems to me there has been comparatively very little interest in doing anything about Hungary or safeguarding Europe against autocracy
The fundamental problem with expulsion is that it changes the persecution narrative from being complete bullshit, to being arguable.
Hungarians need to sort Orban out, the exact same as the French with their fascists, and Germany, and Italy, and...need I go on?
There is no good play here, but it requires all Europeans to remember that we beat them before, and we sure as fuck will beat them again as long as people get involved.
They need some form of reciprocity: if you restrict these and these laws, we will restrict this and this influence in the block until you go back. e.g. you end independent media? We block you from owning any media in EU. You open the doors to visa-free russian citizens, lose access to Schengen. You take giant loans from China? Lose access to cohesion funds. You jerrymander your elections to the extreme? No votes in EU parliament/council for you...but proportional and reversible to provide an incentive to go back to normal at least a bit...obviously IANAL
PS: I mean, look at Ukraine: "you block our military aid? We block your gas."
Why doesn't Orbán form a union with Putin? – Polish Foreign Ministry hits back at Orbán's speech in Baile Tusnad ---- (Archived link)
Polish Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski reacted to the Hungarian Prime Minister's speech delivered on Saturday in Baile Tusnad:
Why doesn't Orbán form a union with Putin and some other similar authoritarian states? If you don't want to be part of a club, you can always leave it."
[...]
[Bartoszewski] added that the Hungarian government is currently clearly pursuing an anti-EU, anti-Ukrainian and anti-Polish policy. The Polish politician recalled that Viktor Orbán is currently blocking the two billion zlotys (nearly 468,000 euros) that Poland is supposed to receive from the EU as a reimbursement for Polish military supplies delivered to Ukraine.
[...]
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu had also commented on Viktor Orbán's Saturday speech earlier, wryly asking: "Did he say anything about Romania? Do they want me to forbid him to come to Romania?"
Well, the intro was nice:
Fidesz has rigged Hungary’s elections, packed its courts, and violated its citizens’ human rights.
So, we have a culprint. But how will expelling the whole country help it's citizens?
It's like throwing bathwater out along with the baby.
Respectfully Duke, you're in North Carolina, sort your house out first.
I really don't get this sort of attitude. Do you seriously think that nobody is allowed to even write about how the EU could potentially use existing mechanisms and treaties to expel autocratic states unless everything about their own society is "sorted out"?
Like, does this mean that eg. people in Finland can't currently talk about autocracy in the EU because we have an extremist right wing government?