Hungary can no more than Poland be considered at present to be a true democracy, a liberal democracy. Quite clearly, were they candidates to join the European Union today, these two countries would be knocked back. They no longer meet the Copenhagen criteria which require that the rule of law and democracy be guaranteed by stable institutions. As Professor Grzegorz Ekiert, Director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University, notes: “In both countries, the authoritarian institutional system, giving largely unrestricted political power to the ruling party, has been established”. The Polish-born sociologist immediately adds: “While they are still not dictatorships, with every new legislation expanding the power of the government the potential for authoritarian rule increases considerably” (Social Europe Occasional Paper, n° 13, August 2017).
Let us focus, this time, on the “illiberal democracy” that Viktor Orbán is so proud to be building in Hungary (there will, alas, be other reasons for having to return some time or other to Poland). Unsurprisingly, the European Court of Justice unceremoniously threw out the complaints lodged by Hungary and Slovakia against the mechanism for relocating asylum seekers adopted by the Council at the height of the migration crisis in 2015 (see EUROPE 11856). In the hours that followed, the Slovak government led by Robert Fico said that it accepted the ruling even though that decision appears and will continue to appear inappropriate. So, the rule of law based on the separation of powers is maintained. It was, however, a quite different tune from Budapest where European Affairs Minister Peter Szijjátó described the ruling as “outrageous and irresponsible”. What is outrageous and irresponsible is that a minister in a democratic country could make such a comment!
On refugees, no one has any right to lecture the others. Was not the recent pressing request from Rome to open their ports to refugee boats met with deafening silence from Spain and France? No, no one faultless in this affair, EU honour being salvaged only by Angela Merkel. But do we just have to accept that this sensitive issue gives rise to positions bordering on racism and islamophobia? When Peter Szijjátó states that the Court of Justice ruling “threatens the security and the future of Europe … and is against the interests of European nations”, he is no more than the mouthpiece for a prime minister whose views on this are as clear as they are frightening.
In a speech at the 28th Bálványos Summer Open University in Romania on 22 July, Viktor Orbán presented himself as the leader of a new crusade, one that, this time, is defensive. His firm belief is that “there is no cultural identity in a population without a stable ethnic composition”. With sword drawn, then, he attacks everything to do with multiculturalism, arguing that it is “obvious that the culture of migrants contrasts dramatically with European culture”, which is, of course, the Christian culture of which he sees himself as the last bastion with the Social Democratic parties having become “un-Christian” “trying to satisfy the values and cultural expectations of the liberal media and intelligentsia”.
There is the reason why Hungary does not under any circumstances show any “solidarity with ideologies, peoples and ethnic groups which are committed to the goal of changing the very European culture which forms the essence, meaning and purpose of the European way of life”. There is the reason, too, why he is fighting against “Brussels” where “an alliance has been forged against the opinion of the people”. This alliance brings together “the Brussels bureaucrats and their political elite” and counts among its ranks a “grand inquisitor”, previously Viviane Reding and now Frans Timmermans. Worse, this alliance builds on a “system that may be described as the Soros Empire” whose aim is “every year hundreds of thousand migrants – and, if possible, a million – should be brought into the territory of the European Union from the Muslim world”. There is the reason why Viktor Orbán has rejected relocation of refugees. There is the reason why Budapest has been trying over the last months and weeks through a poster campaign that smacked of antisemitism to demonise George Soros, a Hungarian-born Jew, striving to make life difficult for foreign NGOs working in Hungary – particularly those belonging to the “Soros Empire” – and doing all in its power force the University of Central Europe, founded and funded by Soros, to close its doors in Budapest (see EUROPE 11798).
Can the European Union any longer tolerate this stinking crusade? Even though EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini says that we must not take comments made in the course of an electoral campaign at their word (and Mr Orbán is already campaigning ahead of the general election in the spring when his main opponent will again be the extreme-right Jobbik party), EU leaders would be wise not to hold their noses any longer. Persevering in trying to ignore what looks like the undermining – if not the destruction – of democracy in (at least) one member state would be akin to a demonstration that their supposed values were, ultimately, devoid of all meaning. Thus they would send out a sign of weakness that all the populist and nationalistic forces that are growing in Europe will take full advantage of.
No, the time has come for the European Union to lance the Hungarian boil – and the one swelling in Poland, too. Now sitting in the European Parliament, Luxembourg Christian Democrat Viviane Reding is right when she argues for Hungary – and Poland – to be hit in the wallet. Her reasoning is faultless: “In Poland and in Hungary, European funds provide up to 5% of annual GDP. If it is possible to reduce funding when a member state’s public deficit rises too high, it’s only fair that it should be possible to do so when a government puts restrictions on the press, the judicial system and, more generally, civil society. It is our credibility that is at stake” (Le Monde, 6 September).
Professor Péter Akos Bod, former head of the Hungarian central bank, does not hesitate to add his voice to those arguing that Hungary has become a mafia state whose economy serves “those close to the power”, something that has repercussions for the EU: “Increasingly, experts believe that the effect of European subsidies on Hungary has been perverse in that they have increased the risk of corruption and made the widespread practice of overcharging socially acceptable” (Le Monde, 10 June).
In this context, for heads of state and/or government to continue to do nothing would make them nothing more nothing less than guilty of complicity in the distressing and terrifying descent into hell that Hungarian democracy is suffering.
Michel Theys