Alongside Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s struggle to defeat Islamist terrorism, another war loomed large at the first plenary session of the new European Parliament in Strasbourg last week.
The leadership of the European Union, supported by MEPs from the left, green and phoney centre-right parties, has effectively declared war on an EU member state. This is a conflict in which everybody who believes in real democracy in Europe should take sides, and send the Brussels elite an uncompromising message: Hands Off Hungary!
Because, despite the personal insults hurled at Viktor Orbán in Strasbourg, this conflict is about much more than the Hungarian prime minister. It is about the principle of national sovereignty—the practical bedrock of democracy—and the freedom of the people of Hungary or any other nation to choose their own leaders, without interference from an unelected foreign oligarchy.
The Brussels/Strasbourg establishment doesn’t only hate Orbán for his reluctance to join in their open-ended support for Ukraine’s war and his promotion of an alternative peace plan. They despise what this stance represents: his broader refusal to toe the EU line or take the knee to the leftist elites, on everything from opening Hungary’s borders to masses of immigrants to promoting gender ideology in its schools.
The fact that, in taking these conservative stands, Prime Minister Orbán might simply be reflecting the views of the majority of the Hungarian population only further infuriates the anti-democrats of the European Commission and their allies in the we-know-what’s-best-for-the-rest club.
Of course, the EU oligarchy has been gunning for Orbán and his national conservative Fidesz government for years. Until now, they have usually tried to disguise their political vendetta as a neutral defence of ‘EU values’ or ‘the rule of law’—rather as some might call the military invasion of a sovereign state a ‘special military operation.’
In a remarkable drum-beating display in Strasbourg last week, however, the legal mask slipped, the velvet gloves came off, and the EU elites declared war on Hungary. This was supposed to be the formal launch of the new European Parliament, elected in June. Because it is currently Hungary’s turn to fill the revolving presidency of the European Council, prime minister Orbán was there to present his government’s vision of Europe’s future to the assembled MEPs.
Instead of a dignified parliamentary occasion, however, the plenary session was more like a kangaroo court in which Orbán was put on trial. A classic political show trial at that, in which he had obviously been declared guilty of heinous crimes against the EU before the proceedings even began.
Left, green, and centrist MEPS queued up to hurl abuse at Orbán for daring to defy Brussels’ diktat on migration or gender policy. When one leading green told Orbán that he was “Not welcome here,” it was easy to see that stark message was also meant for the millions of Hungarians who elected him.
This declaration of war on Hungary was far from the preserve of a few leftist cranks. It was launched from the very top of the EU machine.
Manfred Weber, German leader of the largest group of MEPs, the fake conservative European People’s Party (EPP), scoffed that Orbán’s party had not won the EU elections in Hungary. Germany’s Weber even saw fit to tell the Hungarian people that their prime minister should really be opposition leader Peter Magyar, coincidentally of the EPP. Never mind that, in the real world, Fidesz easily won those elections with 45% of the popular vote—a level of support which Weber’s national party, the CDU, has not achieved since before German reunification in 1990.
Even further up the Brussels’ hierarchy, European Commission president and ‘Empress’, Ursula von der Leyen, seemed to be dreaming of putting Orbán, the uppity peasant, in the stocks as she pelted him with every lump of political dirt she could dig up from her fertile imagination. Von der Leyen even ended with a direct appeal to “the Hungarian people,” assuring them that “We are one family. Your story is our story. Your future is our future.” Anybody might imagine that Fidesz was an alien invader from whom Hungary must be rescued by the EU, rather than a democratic government that has triumphed in four consecutive national elections, thanks to the votes of those same Hungarian people who defied the orders from Brussels.
As Orbán summed it up on Friday, “Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber announced that they wanted to overthrow the Hungarian government. They also named the members of this future government. Let’s just say that their preference is a pro-Brussels government, not a national-sovereigntist one.”
Hungary’s prime minister explained that he is in the EU, like other heads of government, in order to negotiate, compromise and make agreements on the basis of his country’s national interests, not as some unaligned being coming from ‘the sky.’ By contrast, von der Leyen and her fellow Eurocrats want to act like gods, as if they really were floating on a cloud above the world of squabbling nations below them, decreeing what is good for the future of the EU.
In the upside word of Ursula-Through-the-Looking-Glass, the EU elites can even claim that they are the defenders of democracy. Thus their fan club stood in the parliament last week, holding placards that declared they were “Democrats Against Autocrats,” while the elected prime minister of Hungary was lambasted by the anointed president of the European Commission—a pseudo-autocrat who, as this column will never tire of reminding us, has just been ‘re-elected’ head of the EU for another five years without winning the support of a single European voter.
In reality, the oligarchy hates real democracy because, from its ancient Greek origins, it represents the fusion of the demos—the people—with kratos—power and control. The aim of the Brussels establishment is to keep those two elements as far as apart as possible, and to maintain a monopoly on kratos.
That is why they have erected a political cordon sanitaire around Europe’s increasingly popular populist parties, to bar those they brand ‘far right’ from any positions of influence in the European Parliament. By isolating Fidesz and the rest of the new Patriots for Europe, the third largest group of MEPs, the elites are also telling the millions of patriots who voted for them across Europe that they are “not welcome.”
This war on democracy and national sovereignty is already spreading far beyond Hungary. The conservative government of the Netherlands been told that it cannot opt out of the EU migration pact, whatever its voters may want. Even the Polish government, led by arch Eurocrat Donald Tusk, has now been instructed by Brussels to forget about suspending asylum applications from illegal, sorry, ‘irregular’ migrants.
The fight for the inseparable principles of national sovereignty and democracy will decide the future of Europe. And it is a fight we can win. Orbán’s Hungary may have seemed isolated amongst its shrill enemies in the European Parliament (although even there, there was rather more support from other national conservative MEPs than the mainstream media saw fit to report). Outside the Brussels/Strasbourg bubble, however, support for populist sovereigntist parties is surging, forcing the fearful centrists to make placatory noises about limiting migration. (No, we don’t believe them either.)
Whatever anybody’s views on the war in Ukraine, it is time to take sides in the EU elites’ war on national sovereignty and democracy. Our message should be, Hands Off Hungary—No Surrender.
Time To Tell the EU Elites: Hands Off Hungary!
Photo: FREDERICK FLORIN / AFP
Alongside Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Israel’s struggle to defeat Islamist terrorism, another war loomed large at the first plenary session of the new European Parliament in Strasbourg last week.
The leadership of the European Union, supported by MEPs from the left, green and phoney centre-right parties, has effectively declared war on an EU member state. This is a conflict in which everybody who believes in real democracy in Europe should take sides, and send the Brussels elite an uncompromising message: Hands Off Hungary!
Because, despite the personal insults hurled at Viktor Orbán in Strasbourg, this conflict is about much more than the Hungarian prime minister. It is about the principle of national sovereignty—the practical bedrock of democracy—and the freedom of the people of Hungary or any other nation to choose their own leaders, without interference from an unelected foreign oligarchy.
The Brussels/Strasbourg establishment doesn’t only hate Orbán for his reluctance to join in their open-ended support for Ukraine’s war and his promotion of an alternative peace plan. They despise what this stance represents: his broader refusal to toe the EU line or take the knee to the leftist elites, on everything from opening Hungary’s borders to masses of immigrants to promoting gender ideology in its schools.
The fact that, in taking these conservative stands, Prime Minister Orbán might simply be reflecting the views of the majority of the Hungarian population only further infuriates the anti-democrats of the European Commission and their allies in the we-know-what’s-best-for-the-rest club.
Of course, the EU oligarchy has been gunning for Orbán and his national conservative Fidesz government for years. Until now, they have usually tried to disguise their political vendetta as a neutral defence of ‘EU values’ or ‘the rule of law’—rather as some might call the military invasion of a sovereign state a ‘special military operation.’
In a remarkable drum-beating display in Strasbourg last week, however, the legal mask slipped, the velvet gloves came off, and the EU elites declared war on Hungary. This was supposed to be the formal launch of the new European Parliament, elected in June. Because it is currently Hungary’s turn to fill the revolving presidency of the European Council, prime minister Orbán was there to present his government’s vision of Europe’s future to the assembled MEPs.
Instead of a dignified parliamentary occasion, however, the plenary session was more like a kangaroo court in which Orbán was put on trial. A classic political show trial at that, in which he had obviously been declared guilty of heinous crimes against the EU before the proceedings even began.
Left, green, and centrist MEPS queued up to hurl abuse at Orbán for daring to defy Brussels’ diktat on migration or gender policy. When one leading green told Orbán that he was “Not welcome here,” it was easy to see that stark message was also meant for the millions of Hungarians who elected him.
This declaration of war on Hungary was far from the preserve of a few leftist cranks. It was launched from the very top of the EU machine.
Manfred Weber, German leader of the largest group of MEPs, the fake conservative European People’s Party (EPP), scoffed that Orbán’s party had not won the EU elections in Hungary. Germany’s Weber even saw fit to tell the Hungarian people that their prime minister should really be opposition leader Peter Magyar, coincidentally of the EPP. Never mind that, in the real world, Fidesz easily won those elections with 45% of the popular vote—a level of support which Weber’s national party, the CDU, has not achieved since before German reunification in 1990.
Even further up the Brussels’ hierarchy, European Commission president and ‘Empress’, Ursula von der Leyen, seemed to be dreaming of putting Orbán, the uppity peasant, in the stocks as she pelted him with every lump of political dirt she could dig up from her fertile imagination. Von der Leyen even ended with a direct appeal to “the Hungarian people,” assuring them that “We are one family. Your story is our story. Your future is our future.” Anybody might imagine that Fidesz was an alien invader from whom Hungary must be rescued by the EU, rather than a democratic government that has triumphed in four consecutive national elections, thanks to the votes of those same Hungarian people who defied the orders from Brussels.
As Orbán summed it up on Friday, “Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Weber announced that they wanted to overthrow the Hungarian government. They also named the members of this future government. Let’s just say that their preference is a pro-Brussels government, not a national-sovereigntist one.”
Hungary’s prime minister explained that he is in the EU, like other heads of government, in order to negotiate, compromise and make agreements on the basis of his country’s national interests, not as some unaligned being coming from ‘the sky.’ By contrast, von der Leyen and her fellow Eurocrats want to act like gods, as if they really were floating on a cloud above the world of squabbling nations below them, decreeing what is good for the future of the EU.
In the upside word of Ursula-Through-the-Looking-Glass, the EU elites can even claim that they are the defenders of democracy. Thus their fan club stood in the parliament last week, holding placards that declared they were “Democrats Against Autocrats,” while the elected prime minister of Hungary was lambasted by the anointed president of the European Commission—a pseudo-autocrat who, as this column will never tire of reminding us, has just been ‘re-elected’ head of the EU for another five years without winning the support of a single European voter.
In reality, the oligarchy hates real democracy because, from its ancient Greek origins, it represents the fusion of the demos—the people—with kratos—power and control. The aim of the Brussels establishment is to keep those two elements as far as apart as possible, and to maintain a monopoly on kratos.
That is why they have erected a political cordon sanitaire around Europe’s increasingly popular populist parties, to bar those they brand ‘far right’ from any positions of influence in the European Parliament. By isolating Fidesz and the rest of the new Patriots for Europe, the third largest group of MEPs, the elites are also telling the millions of patriots who voted for them across Europe that they are “not welcome.”
This war on democracy and national sovereignty is already spreading far beyond Hungary. The conservative government of the Netherlands been told that it cannot opt out of the EU migration pact, whatever its voters may want. Even the Polish government, led by arch Eurocrat Donald Tusk, has now been instructed by Brussels to forget about suspending asylum applications from illegal, sorry, ‘irregular’ migrants.
The fight for the inseparable principles of national sovereignty and democracy will decide the future of Europe. And it is a fight we can win. Orbán’s Hungary may have seemed isolated amongst its shrill enemies in the European Parliament (although even there, there was rather more support from other national conservative MEPs than the mainstream media saw fit to report). Outside the Brussels/Strasbourg bubble, however, support for populist sovereigntist parties is surging, forcing the fearful centrists to make placatory noises about limiting migration. (No, we don’t believe them either.)
Whatever anybody’s views on the war in Ukraine, it is time to take sides in the EU elites’ war on national sovereignty and democracy. Our message should be, Hands Off Hungary—No Surrender.
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