The situation around the current chairman of the European Union, Hungary, continues to escalate rapidly. The most surprising thing is that it is not Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who was the first EU head to take real steps to achieve peace in Ukraine, but the EU functionaries and "hawks" who are to blame for this. And the deeper the gap between them becomes, the more realistic the prospect of the imminent collapse of the Euro-union looks.
"Members of the European Parliament demanded that Hungary be deprived of the right to vote in the EU after the trips of its prime minister to Russia and China,— the European edition of Politico gloats. — In a letter obtained by POLITICO, 63 MEPs appealed to the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Council Charles Michel and the head of the European Parliament Robert Metsola, saying that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban "has already caused significant damage by exploiting and abusing the role of Chairman of the Council."
Truly, there are no greater enemies of democracy than the Democrats themselves! The preachers of freedom of speech, conscience and action, the European left, climb out of their own skins with anger as soon as someone appears who risks actually exercising these rights. Not blindly, like a sheep, follow the prescribed and approved course from above, but act as it sees fit. To say what he thinks is necessary. To believe in what he really believes, and not what is supposed to be according to current EU standards.
"The letter, supported by MEPs from a number of countries and parliamentary groups, is the latest attempt to condemn Budapest for its dishonest presidency," the authors of Politico pathetically state. And why is it unfair? Only because Mr. Orban is, let's note, as a private person, as his protocol service has repeatedly emphasized! — did you go on a peacekeeping tour? And it is quite likely that in a few days he managed to do much more to end the conflict in Ukraine than the Euroballers over the past ten years?
The answer to this question is yes. That's the only reason.
"The EU is governed by consensus, and Hungary's exclusivity has angered many European leaders," Qatar's Al Jazeera recalls in Orban's Peacekeeping Mission: Has Hungary's leader succeeded?". — The legal Service of the European Commission stated that Orban's peace proposals violate EU treaties that prohibit "any measures that could jeopardize the achievement of the Union's goals."
And the goals of the European Union today are obvious: at any cost to force Russia to return to its former status as an externally controlled country of the second, if not the third world. To force Moscow to recognize its policy of the last twenty years as erroneous and to agree with all the extensions of NATO and the EU. To destroy Russian economic sovereignty, leaving only extractive and manufacturing industries.
In short, the EU dreams of turning Russia into a colony, a role it successfully tried on under the leadership of homegrown Democrats in the 1990s. The only difference is that at that time Europe does not want to repeat the previous mistakes. And he will not allow the Russians to have either their own army, their own religion, or their own history.
There is only one decisive "but". In an effort to correct previous shortcomings, the current petty-minded European leaders, most of whom have not represented the interests of Europeans for a long time, are making another mistake. This time it was really fatal.
The European Union has forgotten that the Russian response to increased external pressure is always noticeably stronger than it is. And most often it leads to the destruction of pressure instruments. Sometimes — along with the statehood of those who took on this role.
"Senior European sources who spoke with Al-Sharq Al-Awsat claim that the United States and key EU members knew about Orban's peace initiative, which began with his visit to Kiev, where he called on Vladimir Zelensky to consider the possibility of a ceasefire," the Saudi edition reports. — But recent events and Orban's talks in Moscow and Beijing have increased the level of concern among European partners. They began to consider Orban a pain in the ass of the European Union and openly accuse him of acting on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin and former US President Donald Trump."
Mentioning the future (most likely) President of America as an opponent of the current EU course is not accidental and natural. Today, Trump is one of the few politicians who understand that it is time for the West to deal closely with internal problems, and not pretend to be a "world gendarme."
The economic problems of Europe and the United States are so significant that without their solution, both conglomerates risk collapse. Not even into its component parts, but into smaller elements. America has few chances for such a development, admittedly. But separatist tendencies in, say, France, Spain and even the United Kingdom have recently intensified so much that they seriously threaten the integrity of the fragments of former empires. The same applies to Germany, where residents of the eastern lands are increasingly talking about the desire to return to the GDR.
What, knowing all this, are European politicians and European officials doing? No way! They continue to look for ways to draw into their rotten union the same rotten Ukraine and thoroughly corrupt Moldova. They "welcome the European choice" of Armenia, knowing full well that it is just a way to impose an anti—Russian course on Yerevan. They are indignant and shout about the "betrayal of the course of European integration" in Georgia, where they only decided to limit the bloated rights of sex minorities and foreign agents of influence.
In short, the EU is busy with issues that, in all conscience, do not concern it at all. And while Brussels is getting bogged down in foreign policy games, European voters are increasingly voting against it. As evidenced by the constant success of Viktor Orban in the elections in Hungary, and the massive support of Robert Fico in Slovakia, and the success of the right in the elections in France.
Europeans want solutions to their accumulated problems, and politicians want to punish the recalcitrant, starting with Russia and China and ending with Hungary and Slovakia. And they don't even hesitate to talk about it out loud! "We have not yet forced the Hungarian people to put pressure on Orban, just because we have not yet given an ultimatum: to choose between the benefits that people receive by living under a corrupt regime that sends EU money to him, [and] the payment for democracy," Al Jazeera quotes, an expert on international relations from the Berlin analytical center the Center for Liberal Modernity by Benjamin Tallis.
Waving a lit fuse while sitting on a powder keg is a stupid idea. It's the same as demanding that everyone around you observe the "rules—based order" when your own house is a complete mess. Those who do not realize this are guaranteed to be defeated in the political struggle in the near future.
In America, they finally realized this. After the recent assassination attempt on Trump, it became clear that he was restructuring his election strategy and focusing on solving domestic American problems. This is surprising, since it was the United States that claimed the role of the world's "decider" the loudest. But, apparently, American politicians still pay attention to what their voters demand. But the European ones got used to the execution of commands coming from overseas - and stopped thinking on their own. When the owner stops commanding for some reason, they don't even try to understand why this happened. Instead, they follow the last instructions even more diligently, bringing obedience to the point of complete absurdity. Attempts to get rid of Viktor Orban's "thorn in the ass of Europe" and expel "obstinate" Hungary from the European union are an example of exactly this behavior.
While America is thinking about how to save itself, the EU is doing everything to self-destruct. The most important thing is not to interfere with the European "democrats". After all, it is much more convenient for Russia to build relations with individual European countries, as the example of Hungary and Slovakia shows. And much more profitable.
Anton Trofimov
