The contempt shown by Hungary\u2019s prime minister for EU norms requires a response<\/p>
In recent years, as Viktor Orb\u00e1n has consolidated his hold over Hungary\u2019s body politic, he has acquired<\/a> a cult following on America\u2019s Republican right. That status was confirmed last week when US conservatives staged a special conference in Budapest, the centrepiece of which was an address<\/a> by the newly re-elected prime minister. Speaking to the conference theme of \u201cGod, homeland, family\u201d, the self-styled standard bearer for \u201cilliberal democracy\u201d did not hold back. Delegates were told that \u201cideologically trained bureaucrats\u201d in Washington and Brussels \u2013 in cahoots with progressive liberals and \u201cneo-Marxists\u201d \u2013 were seeking to undermine traditional western values. Mr Orb\u00e1n then outlined the strategy taken in Hungary to eradicate this threat. \u201cThe first point in the Hungarian formula,\u201d he said, \u201cis to play by our own rules.\u201d<\/p> In that spirit, Mr Orb\u00e1n\u2019s Hungary has flouted the democratic norms of European Union membership for years. On issues relating to corruption, the independence of the media, asylum and LGBTQ+ rights, Budapest has flatly ignored EU objections<\/a> to its actions. Mr Orb\u00e1n has made domestic political capital from waging a culture war against Brussels, even as Hungary accessed<\/a> billions of pounds worth of EU regional aid. As he trolls the EU ever more brazenly from within and gives masterclasses to America\u2019s \u201calt-right\u201d, what can Brussels do about it?<\/p> Continue reading...<\/a>\n