His comments would not have fallen on deaf ears.\u00a0 While metropolitan London would have been aghast at his pedigree and remarks, a Brexit-audience in the rustbelts and areas of deprivation, would have felt a twang of appreciation.\u00a0 For them, migration has not been a boon and glory.\u00a0 For Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n, it has been an opportunity to make valuable enemies and court new friends.<\/p>\n
The meeting between UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Orb\u00e1n on May 28 did more than raise eyebrows and prompt head scratching.\u00a0 The statement<\/a> released by No 10 was anodyne enough, filling space and not much else.\u00a0 \u201cThe leaders discussed the importance of the UK and Hungary working together bilaterally to increase security and prosperity in our countries and to address global challenges such as climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n Johnson is also said to have \u201craised his significant concerns about human rights in Hungary, including gender equality, LGBT rights and media freedom.\u201d\u00a0 In terms of foreign policy, Johnson saw his Hungarian counterpart as a man of influence.\u00a0 \u201cThe Prime Minister encouraged Hungary to use their influence to promote democracy and stability.\u201d<\/p>\n The critics, notably those drenched in the juice of Britannic values, were bemused and baffled.\u00a0 Labour MP Alex Sobel outlined<\/a> Orb\u00e1n\u2019s resume ahead of the visit: \u201ca renowned anti-Semite, fuelled violence against the Romany, clamps down on the LGBT and Muslim communities.\u201d\u00a0 He had also \u201csuppressed democratic norms and press freedom\u201d.\u00a0 Shadow foreign secretary Lisa Nandy took issue with the visit given Orb\u00e1n\u2019s record on attacking \u201cpress freedom and democracy\u201d, refugees as \u201cMuslim invaders\u201d and was \u201ca cheerleader for Putin and Lukashenko.\u201d<\/p>\n Nandy then turned on that resource so commonly drawn upon when faced with discomforting leaders. Orb\u00e1n, being one of Europe\u2019s \u201cmost regressive leaders\u201d was effectively undermining \u201cthe values the UK government says it wants to defend\u201d.<\/p>\n The government of Boris Johnson may well spout the values argument, but Brexit has meant courting and entertaining widely.\u00a0 The world is less its opportune oyster than a pressing necessity.\u00a0 Friends need to be won over, agreements inked and secured.\u00a0 As a No 10 spokesman put it<\/a>, \u201cAs president of the Visegr\u00e1d group of Central European nations later this year, cooperation with Hungary is vital to the UK\u2019s prosperity and security.\u201d\u00a0 UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng was even more explicit<\/a>: the UK had to, at times, speak to the unsavoury and approach the unlikeable. \u201cI think Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s views on migrants are things I would not endorse in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n Kwarteng distils the amoral British position with accuracy, though it also says much about what Timothy Garton Ash described<\/a> as \u201cthe dilemma of self-inflicted weakness\u201d that burdens post-Brexit Britain.\u00a0 Arms contracts with Saudi Arabia while a theocracy maims and molests remain a matter of course.\u00a0 The relationship with China privileges the business imperative, despite claims about holding a liberal international order together.\u00a0 Deals are to be made, even with authoritarian regimes and those with a sketchy record on human rights.<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n, by comparison to some of the UK\u2019s trading partners, is almost civil.\u00a0 And more to the point, he never disappoints as one of the great critics of the EU, even as he remains in its tent.\u00a0 The abundant admiration for Brexit, described<\/a> as the opening of a \u201cfantastic door, a fantastic opportunity\u201d, has not gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n Then there is that niggling issue that Johnson and his party members might not be entirely at odds with the Hungarian PM.\u00a0 While the official statement on the No 10 meeting mentions a concern for rights and liberties, Johnson could hardly have disagreed with some of his counterpart\u2019s views, notably on Islam.\u00a0 The recent Singh report<\/a> into claims of Islamophobia within the Conservative Party found degrees of discrimination from the Prime Minister to grass roots organisations, though it rejected claims of \u201cinstitutional racism\u201d made by such prominent Tory members as Baroness Warsi.\u00a0 The Prime Minister\u2019s previous remarks, mocking those wearing burqas as \u201clooking like letterboxes\u201d were also picked up in the report.\u00a0 \u201cI am obviously sorry for any offence taken,\u201d Johnson said in response, though he also added a rounding qualifier: \u201cMy writings are often parodic, satirical\u201d.<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n\u2019s views on immigration and Islam are far from satirical, though they do not resist unintentional parody and farce.\u00a0 Reprising himself as a nationalist warrior fending off a modern Ottoman surge, the grave Hungarian leader wears the habitual costume of a defender of European civilisation.<\/p>\n And what of anti-Semitism? Specifically referring<\/a> to his troubled relationship with George Soros, the billionaire was described as \u201ca talented Hungarian businessman\u2026 he is very much in favour of migration, financing and helping the NGOs who are doing that.\u00a0 We don\u2019t like it but it has nothing to do with ethnic identity.\u201d<\/p>\n The shambolic rollout of the EU vaccination program has also gifted much room to Orb\u00e1n to mock opponents and stifle detractors.\u00a0 Vacillation in Europe on how best to approach COVID-19 and poor planning has meant the courting of other countries for vaccines.\u00a0 The EU is not working, he can say, and this is how we respond.\u00a0 The result is a range of options for Hungarians, sourced from Russia and China.\u00a0 As he has done so, Orb\u00e1n has pursued an aggressive campaign against contrarians within his country.\u00a0 The pro-government media mobbing<\/a> of political scientist Peter Kreko, who cautioned against the speed the Orb\u00e1n government was seeking the Sputnik V vaccine, was typically sinister.<\/p>\n In the indignant storm surrounding the visit, a White Hall source may have provided<\/a> the most accurate summary that reflects the British PM\u2019s approach to policy in general: \u201cNumber 10 has walked into a bear trap.\u201d<\/p>The post Laying the Bear Trap: Orb\u00e1n visits No 10 Downing Street<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.\n This post was originally published on Dissident Voice<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" His comments would not have fallen on deaf ears.\u00a0 While metropolitan London would have been aghast at his pedigree and remarks, a Brexit-audience in the rustbelts and areas of deprivation, would have felt a twang of appreciation.\u00a0 For them, migration has not been a boon and glory.\u00a0 For Hungary\u2019s Viktor Orb\u00e1n, it has been an [\u2026]<\/p>\n The post Laying the Bear Trap: Orb\u00e1n visits No 10 Downing Street<\/a> first appeared on Dissident Voice<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[189,892,333,1383,916,281],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185926,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185877\/revisions\/185926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}