Holy fcuk
Shooting themselves into their feet seems to be the proud tradition of the Hungarian international politics. They have lost 2/3 of their territories in WW1. Then in WW2 they had gladly flocked to Nazis, only to be beaten and humiliated again. Now it seems Orban found the next Hitler to fawn over, and to hell with the consequences.
Yes, fair point, I completely forgot about that, although I would say that the situation had been pretty stable in Cyprus for a long time before it joined the EU, with the UN buffer zone having been there for decades. This would be different from the Ukraine situation where there is no buffer zone, the line is still shifting and ordinance is still being lobbed at various parts of Ukraine not even on the front.
Perhaps the EU would accept Ukraine if the occupation goes 'cold', ie there is a stable ceasefire agreement in place, but I cannot see it happening while it is 'hot'.
I 2nd that, bloody hell.
Attacker died. 12 injured.
From my understanding of the Hungarian situation there's a strong revanchist feeling towards Hungarians in Romania. I believe one of the first things Orban did when he came to power was to grant voting rights to ethnic Hungarians in Romania who had never even lived in Hungary.
It's one thing for us to grant citizenship to grandkids of Irish citizens, but voting rights?
Another interesting thing about Orban is that when he was a revolutionary he party banned people over 35 from joining as it was felt they were too tainted with soviet ideology. It seems as if he has replaced resistance to soviet rule to resisting EU membership responsibilities.
In short his Hungarian priority is neither pro Russian or pro EU, its pro bigger Hungary, which at some stage may become a serious issue for the union.
So we now have this week alone
Their HAMAS Islamist allies must be busy giving pointers
Actually Israel halted drone sales to Ukraine at Putin's request after the Crimean annexation. Israel and Russia have more in common when it comes to land grabs and genocide.
Just in case there's any unintentional confusion, it was a village councillor who dropped the grenades, not a member of the Ukrainian parliament.
That they do, Israel are not exactly saints but neither is HAMAS who are clearly influencing Russian tactics (now that they don’t have enough artillery to level whole cities like Israelis)
But that’s going off on a tangent in this war there is clear good and evil
According to the Daily Mail (I know, I know), the motive appears unrelated to the war:
He was apparently in the Servant of the People party, who are a minority there, and had some issue with water charges or something.
And the trial this week of German Carsten Linke accused of taking 450,000 euro in bribes from the FSB in exchange for the location of weaponry in Ukraine. Sentenced to prison, fairly sure for his own protection.
They need there holidays
CGI is exactly what came to my mind on seeing this.
How the hell are Hamas influencing Russia?
Russia and Israel are both committing genocide on innocent populations. Hamas is as much a reaction to invasion as Ukrainian resistance. Slava Gaza.
BTW, it's not Hamas that's helped Russia with aircraft tech, it's Israel.
Said on the news just now that EU can find other ways to get the money to them. Loans etc.
Not sure if that's the right approach, Russia has a shrinking population, the more people that leave the better
In theory they are already using loans to get aid to Ukraine countries send equipment and munitions and in return countries then ask for refunds from EU funds
There’s 140 million people there, they can go to India or China, they don’t deserve to be in the civilised world
I've actually visited Mementopark, it's an interesting place. After Hungary gained their independence the soviet statues were being vandalised by the general public so the authorities rounded up all the statues and placed them in Mementopark as, tbf, some of them are brilliant pieces of sculpture. They then built the impressive facade as the entrance to the park to represent the gleaming promise of the equality communism professes to offer... while deliberately leaving the rest of the park under-maintained to represent the reality: an empty, desolate place with large concrete monuments.
It's a long time since I've visited Budapest (went in 2007 and again in 2010) and Hungary's election of Orban with all his Russian sympathies surprised me greatly: the people I met and the museums I visited all depict a horror of / hatred for the USSR and those I met utterly hated Russians. I'm told Orban's support is mainly from the rural areas though so maybe it's their version of backwards rednecks that represent his power base rather than the urbanites around Budapest.
What is that which is 'not progressive or liberal'? What is the EU's aspiration, and how do you measure its widespread support?
I'd have thought the standard western democratic norms, valuing freedom of expression, freedom of the press, clear separation of powers between the judiciary and other branches of the state, and general personal freedoms were a staple of what the EU aspires to. None of which Orban has indicated much love for.
I never said it was a take it or leave it offer. But it is a bit odd to apply to join a club whose members you have such disagreements with. Even the UK generally pulled in the same direction as the rest of the EU during their 50 years of membership, and when needed simply negotiated dispensations.
There should be no tinpot dictators in the EU, these countries should have no business telling the rest of us to F off.
Sanctions are not working
Interest rates at 16%. Was it 15% previously? Hopefully we see them over 20% next year.
I'm surprised was just him but let's hope he was the only 1 to die.
They just can’t help themselves
Another careless smoking incident in putin occupied territory?
Who knows? The stuff in public before the summit was that Hungary was opposed to it (and the aid) and would veto everything.
Anyway they (EU leaders) are going to have to thrash it out with him & Hungary some time, and do something about it.
I know the EU is supposed to be built on consensus and there's valid reasons for the ability to veto, but I think this is an extraordinary situation, and Hungary is a rotten apple inside the union.
There is no critical interest for them or their people at stake in any of this that needs protection by vetos.
The leader is just acting as a cats-paw for a hostile external entity in order to blackmail the rest of us and to benefit himself and his cronies.
He looks very overweight and very unfit - not good. He reminds me of that FG supporter who held a number of important international positions - Peter Pendergast I think. He died a few years ago
Did you visit the former Dept of Intelligence building in BudaPest? It's a monument to their disappeared and victims of Soviet repression who were tortured and executed there. Anyone I spoke to hated authoritarianism, as you say, how on earth he got elected is beyond me.
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