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.

  • lemmyvore@feddit.nlEnglish
    34·
    10 months ago

    You have to draw the line somewhere. Enough is enough. They’ve been nothing but cooperative until now and all the goodwill has been taken advantage of and painted as weakness. It’s about damn time they switched from passive to active pushback.

    And it’s not going to provide anti-EU people with anything they haven’t dreamed up themselves long ago. Have you listened to anti-EU propaganda? It’s mostly demented, wild conspiracies.

    The EU is an association of like-minded societies. If Hungary doesn’t feel like it belongs anymore they can start considering withdrawing.