Victor Orbán threatens with EU collapse

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán

Unless there is a change, the 2028-2035 European Union budget “could be the community’s last,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at this year’s Kötcse meeting near Lake Balaton on Sunday, ‘The Daily News Hungary’ reports.

Orbán said America’s previous Biden administration had “openly advocated setting up a different political regime in Russia”. “By now this has become a financing competition between the EU and Russia, in which the Russians are on the winning side just now. This situation will weaken them, but we will be crippled,” he added.

“Ukraine is being divided up, he said. “While the Europeans now elegantly talk about security guarantees, it in fact means cutting up Ukraine,” he added.

Orbán said the EU had entered a state of disintegration and fragmentation. “If it goes on like this, and there is a good chance it will, the European Union will enter history as the disappointing result of a noble experiment,” he added.

Even if a budget is drafted for the period 2028-2035, the PM said “that could be the last if nothing changes” and warned that the disintegration of the eurozone could follow in a “chaotic and costly process”.

Orbán: EU needs structure of concentric circles

Orbán proposed transforming the structure of the European Union into one of concentric circles in his speech. He said such a system could mean the survival of the concept of European cooperation and the EU for the next ten years. Without it, he warned the EU could “split apart”.

The PM noted that an EU of concentric circles was not the same as a “multi-speed Europe” and explained that countries on the perimeter in such a system would cooperate in just two areas: military security and energy security. That circle could include Turkiye, the United Kingdom and “horribile dictu” Ukraine, he said.

Orbán said the second circle would include countries that were in the common market, and the third countries that wanted a common currency. The fourth circle would include countries that want to harmonise their principles and form a political union, he added.

Orbán: World returning to ‘politics of great powers’

“The United States is now dismantling the global economy and ceasing the export of democracy, returning the world to a political regime of global powers,” Orbán said.

At the meeting, streamed online, Orbán said the US was dismantling “the global economy in which we have lived our lives so far and regional economic areas will emerge across the world”.

He said the new strategy of the US, brought about by Donald Trump’s presidency, meant that the export of democracy was “finished”. “They don’t seek to lecture anybody, they don’t want to dictate what political system is right; every country has its own culture, they should have the systems they want,” he added.

“America is returning to a policy of great powers; their behaviour is no longer governed by international regulations, they see the world as one with players, powers, influences and an ability to project power, a power to be used,” Orbán said.

read more in our Telegram-channel https://t.me/The_International_Affairs