On Thursday, the EU passed the delayed €1.8 trillion Euro budget and coronavirus recovery fund much to the relief of many of the bloc’s leaders. The fund was finally approved after Poland and Hungary removed their vetoes during the recent EU summit.

Polish Prime Minister Andrzej Duda and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had blocked the approval of the budget last month, amid plans to link cash payouts to a nation’s respect for the EU’s core values.

Both Hungary and Poland are the subject of an Article 7 procedure — the EU’s so-called “nuclear option” which allows for nation states to be sanctioned if they are believed to be undermining democracy and the rule of law.

Judit Varga, Justice Minister for Hungary’s right-wing government, said she would challenge the new provision of making EU funds conditional on the bloc’s rule of law criteria in the European Court of Justice, but that never happened.

Poland and Hungary Have Suffered an Embarrassing Defeat

However, it is unlikely that this is going to be the end of the tale. Last week, a state-controlled Polish company said it would buy dozens of local and regional newspapers from a German media company, following years of calls for the “re-Polonization” of the media from Poland’s conservative Law and Justice party (PiS).

In Poland, the ombudsman’s office used to have the power to bring cases before the constitutional court and invalidate controversial legislation before the former became politicized.

According to the NGO Freedom House’s Nations in Transit report, which was released in May, Hungary is no longer a democracy due to the adoption of an emergency law that allows its government to rule by decree indefinitely, brought in after the coronavirus pandemic struck.

Therefore, the EU has its work cut out if it is serious about forcing Poland and Hungary to become more democratic. Yet the bloc failed to prevent both nations from sliding away from democracy this year, which shows how toothless the EU is.

The EU Cannot Force Poland and Hungary to Embrace its Version of Democracy

Making the coronavirus relief fund conditional on accepting the principles of rule and law and democracy may not be enough to persuade Orban and Duda to introduce democratic reforms. There is a strong possibility that both leaders have fooled the EU into believing that they will respect democracy and the rule of law just to receive the money they need to trigger an economic recovery in their respective nations.

Piotr Buras, Head of the Warsaw Office of the European Council on Foreign Relations, said EU member states should push for a transparent and fair mechanism of withholding financial assistance for countries ignoring the Court of Justice of the EU judgments relating to Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union, which outlines the union’s core values. He added that such a mechanism would be a strong warning that solidarity and democracy are indispensable pillars of the European order. But because of the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus, there seems to be no appetite for such a measure.

Bold Choices are Needed in the Year Ahead

On September 9, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said the EU should proceed with integration without Poland and Hungary. Tom Theuns of EU Observer suggests that Rutte’s argument is correct because a new EU could be founded without Warsaw and Budapest. Such a move would be bold on the EU’s part, but doing nothing is not an option for them, and they cannot realistically do anything else to stop the Polish and Hungarian governments from pursuing their individual paths.

Also, neither Duda nor Orban seem serious about triggering Article 50 so that their respective nations can leave the EU. This means the bloc is stuck with the headache Poland and Hungary are causing them.

The coronavirus relief fund is a short-term victory for the EU. It is likely that the war Budapest and Warsaw want to wage with Brussels will continue into 2021, but what happens next remains anyone’s guess.

L'articolo What’s Next for Poland and Hungary Following Their Defeat by the EU? proviene da InsideOver.

As numerous countries introduce their own emergency measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Hungary has emerged as the first democratic casualty of this crisis. On March 30, the Hungarian Parliament voted by 137 to 53 to approve the government’s demand for the power to rule by decree during the Covid-19 pandemic.

What Does the New Law Mean?

The new law means that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his governing Fidesz party can make any new laws they see fit without Hungary’s parliament needing to approve or pass them. It is not yet known how Orban may use these powers, although various people have been arrested for “fake news” in the past several weeks for what the government said is fearmongering about coronavirus and inflating the amount of cases.

Orban claims that he will use his new powers appropriately, but the leader of the Jobbik Party — Hungary’s main opposition party — Peter Jakab, claims that this law has put the entire country into quarantine. Orban’s ruling party called Fidesz used its parliamentary majority to approve of the emergency legislation. Whilst the bill may have received the blessing of Hungary’s elected parliament, that does not mean that it is a democratic law. Orban’s new decree will have wider political consequences that could result in the widespread eradication of people’s freedoms.

Nonetheless, a pro-government polling agency called Nezopont discovered that 90 per cent of the public want the emergency measures extended and 72 percent believe that the criminal code should be strengthened. This data is questionable considering it originates from a pro-government source, but it will no doubt be used by Orban to justify this new law.

This decree has no time limit to it. Therefore, this law could remain in place when the coronavirus epidemic has ended. So far, the Prime Minister has failed to specify whether this law will be removed once the number of Covid-19 cases has peaked and begins to decline. Hungary currently has 492 recorded cases of coronavirus and 16 deaths, although as mentioned critics and some citizens believe the actual number may be far higher.

A Further Blow to Democracy

Anyone accused of spreading misinformation in Hungary could face up to five years of imprisonment. Those found to be breaching the quarantine measures implemented as a means to stem the coronavirus outbreak in Hungary could face up to eight years in jail.

In a further blow to democracy, by-elections and referendums can no longer be held for as long as the state of emergency remains in place. Hungary’s next parliamentary elections are not due until 2022 and if the decree is still in effect by that time, it is more than likely that the elections will not take place.

It is unclear what the Hungarian government means by false information and if Fidesz decides what is true or false, then they could easily manipulate the context of this situation to imprison dozens of journalists and activists.

Hungary Has Embarked on the Same Path as China

In China, an ophthalmologist at Wuhan central hospital called Li Wenliang was interrogated and threatened by police for warning his classmates on WeChat about the coronavirus. He was then released and returned to work before contracting the virus himself and dying from it. China is a good example of what happens when governments are allowed to determine what the truth is, and it is tragic that Hungary has embarked upon a similar path.

Slate Magazine has gone as far as suggesting that Hungary should be thrown out of both the EU and NATO for its emergency decree. Although the Hungarian Government passed a state of emergency in 2015 that closed down media outlets which criticized its anti-refugee policies, there has to be consequences when a NATO member edges closer towards a blatant dictatorship.

Hungary is Breaching its NATO Commitments

Article 2 of the Washington Treaty states that members must strengthen their free institutions. The 1999 Membership Action Plan reiterated this point much more firmly and even specified what rules NATO members must follow. It is clear that Orban is breaking them. For example, the Prime Minister has failed to uphold his commitment to democracy since he started to close media outlets in 2015, as this is an infringement on press freedom.

Former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has also warned that Hungary’s actions put the nation on a collision course with the EU.

It was always likely that some governments would use Covid-19 as an opportunity to restrict democratic freedoms further, and Hungary has become the first EU member state to do so. Hopefully, other nations do not follow their example.

L'articolo Has Hungary Gone Too Far with its Coronavirus Measures? proviene da InsideOver.

When the full horrors of Auschwitz and other concentration camps became known after the defeat of Adolph Hitler and his murderous horde of Nazis, the world vowed never again that such a heinous crime against humanity should be allowed to happen.

Anti-Semitism is Back

Yet in 2020, the 75^th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the spectre of anti-Semitism is once again casting its ugly shadow in too many European countries. The sad fact is that even today, being a Jew can get you harassed, or even killed.

One example can be found in France. French Yellow Vest protests that began against a proposed fuel-tax hike began to air anti-Semitic strains such as “dirty Jew.”

French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy took to the radio airwaves in February 2019 to call the Yellow Vest movement out.

“We, unfortunately, cannot say that anti-Semitism is on the margins of the movement,” Lévy told Europe 1 Radio. “It is the heart of the movement … That doesn’t mean that the movement is intrinsically anti-Semitic, but it does mean that it is time for them to come forward strongly to say, ‘Not in our name,’ not like they are doing now: ‘Yes, OK, but…’ There are no buts.”

Orban’s Obsession with George Soros

And in Hungary, Hungarian-American philanthropist George Soros has been pilloried by Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his populist nationalist government. Soros was accused of wanting to pour migrants — mostly Muslim — into Hungary, becoming a convenient scapegoat to foment fear and further support for Orban. Anti-Soros activism and portrayals often use anti-Semitic tropes to demonize him such as portraying him as a grand manipulator behind the scenes and a cynical, heartless opportunist who wants to destroy pure, Christian nations.

Never mind that Soros was born in Budapest, survived the Holocaust and has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund school meals, establish a university and contributed to numerous human rights proposals in the country.

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency survey distributed to 16,000 Jews in 12 European countries at the end of 2018 found that 90 percent of respondents felt anti-Semitism was on the rise in their respective countries. Further, 30 percent reported direct harassment.

Outrage Over Belgian Parade Float

In Belgium, the ages-old Jewish stereotype was recently resurrected when a carnival float depicted Orthodox Jews sitting on bags of money.

“It is unthinkable that these images are paraded in European streets,” fumed EU Commission spokesperson Margaritis Schinas. Nevertheless, the float was paraded.

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Anti-Semitism was supposed to be, if not eliminated, at least pushed far from its traditional roots in civilized society. What happened?

Why is Anti-Semitism Returning in Europe?

Many factors combined to spur the resurgence of hatred toward Jews. First, anti-Semitism never really went away. It was held in check once the barbarity of six million Jews being fed into the ovens of German concentration camps in the Second World War became public.

But time has eroded some of the horror and survivors of the camps have died.

As well, the world has cracked and in political terms that means the politics of consensus, of a left and right without strife, is broken. The extremists hitherto relegated to the fringe have managed to slither through into the mainstream.

Violence Against Jews On the Rise

In early 2019, figures revealed the emergence of violent attacks on Jews, with a 74 percent increase in France and, particularly disturbing because of its Nazi past, Germany noted a 60 percent rise.

In Malmo, Swedes rallied in protest of U.S. President Donald Trump’s move to make Jerusalem the capital of Israel and those in attendance threatened to “shoot the Jews.”

In Stockholm a speaker called Jews “apes and pigs.”

And then there is revisionist history, with some European countries downplaying their involvement with Nazi Germany.

Across the pond in the U.S., Trump has expressed his adoration for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but has at the same time sought white nationalist support, saying the movement includes “some very fine people.” Furthermore, during his 2016 campaign which would ultimately land him in the White House, Trump put up a Twitter post that included an image of opponent Hillary Clinton and featured the Jewish Star of David and a large pile of money. That one tweet summed up the history of the persecution of Jews.

The Myth of Secret Jewish Ties to Money

For centuries, Jews have been negatively associated with money. “Jews, Money, Myth” was presented at the Jewish Museum London (England) about a year ago today. Through exhibits, it makes clear the myth of Jews and money that has persisted for 2,000 years.

In the Middle Ages, Christians were not allowed to lend money and charge interest. Jews were barred from owning land and so they lent money to Christians and inevitably, the myth of the rich Jew was reinforced. Too often, rather than pay what was owed, Christians instead used pogroms to eliminate the debt.

Earlier still, there was Judas, a Jew, accepting 30 pieces of silver to betray Christ according to the Christian Bible. So the story became how the Jews killed Christ, never mind that the other disciples and Christ himself were Jewish.

Even in literature, Shakespeare’s Shylock wanted his pound of flesh and Dickens’ Fagin was an evil Jewish pickpocket.

Appallingly portrayed as controlling, sinister and cruelly wealthy, the Jew remains a target today. The world must always be on guard lest anti-Semitism gain a terrifying foothold once again as it has done in the past.

L'articolo Anti-Semitism Slithers Out From The Shadows in Europe proviene da InsideOver.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has introduced his latest measure designed to boost Hungary’s sluggish fertility rate. Since 1 February Hungarian couples have been able to obtain free IVF treatment from the country’s fertility clinics that the Fidesz government took into state ownership last December after announcing that the sector was of “strategic importance” to the Central European state. Budapest wants to raise the fertility rate from the current 1.5 births per woman to the replacement level, which is considered to be 2.1.

‘Threatened With Extinction’

In an interview with the Hungarian daily newspaper Napi Gazdasag in 2015 Orbán expressed his concern that Hungarians were “threatened with extinction” because of their low fertility rate. The country’s population has fallen from around 10.7 million in 1980 to around 9.7 million today. The decline is not only due to fewer children being born but also to large-scale emigration by working age Hungarians. According to UN data the country’s population may fall to approximately 8.5 million by 2050.

Orbán’s 2019 Family Protection Action Plan

Orbán’s move follows his announcement in February 2019 of the Family Protection Action Plan that includes a preferential loan offered to every woman under the age of 40 when they first get married; a loan program to support home purchases; a subsidy for purchase of a car for large families; a loan payment of up to 1 million Hungarian forints ($3,235 USD / €2,955) for mortgage loans taken out by families with two or more children; lifetime exemption from personal income tax for women who have raised at least four children; thousands of new nursery places in the next three years; and subsidized parental leave for grandparents. The speaker of the parliament, Kövér, commented: “Good Hungarians not only speak Hungarian but have 3 to 4 children and 9 to 16 grandchildren who speak Hungarian.”

The Fidesz government introduced its first family friendly measures immediately after coming to power in 2010 when Hungary’s fertility rate stood at an all-time low of around 1.3. According to Minister of Family and Youth Affairs Katalin Novák in a recent interview with the US National Catholic Register, Hungary’s abortion rate dropped by 33.5% between 2010 and 2018, marriage increased by 43%, and divorce fell by 22.5% between 2010 and 2017. Policymakers will be observing whether Orban’s measures prove effective. Trump officials reportedly attended a “Make Families Great Again” conference organized by the Hungarian government in Washington D.C. in March of 2019.

Hungary’s demographic problems are of course hardly unique and some European countries are faring even worse. Italy, Portugal and Greece, for example, are currently languishing at around 1.3 in terms of their birthrate. What marks Hungary out, then, is not population decline in itself but its response to the phenomenon. For decades Western Europe has touted immigration—including mass immigration from non-European cultures—as a solution, but in contrast to the liberal establishment Orbán has steadfastly ruled out such an option and, in particular, he has ruled out mass immigration from Muslim nations.

Hungary’s Moments In The Global Spotlight

As historian Norman Stone pointed out, Hungary has hit the world’s headlines on three occasions since the Second World War. In 1956 when the country unsuccessfully attempted to throw off the Soviet yoke and in 1989 when it opened up its borders, heralding the end of the Cold War. The third moment came in 2015 when, faced with hundreds of thousands of mostly Muslim refugees and economic migrants trying to reach northern Europe, Orbán ordered the deployment of the military and the erection of a razor wire fence on the border with Serbia and Croatia. This move turned him into the standard-bearer of the populist-nationalist movement across Europe and a hated bête noire of the left. In a controversial interview with the German newspaper Bild in 2018 Orbán claimed that Hungary did not want “Muslim invaders” on its territory, adding that migration threatened the “culture and sovereignty” of Hungary. In a fiery speech in Rome a year later he reiterated his rejection of mandatory EU migrant quotas but said he would accept deportation quotas “with pleasure.”

Hungary’s New Constitution

The new Hungarian constitution passed by the National Assembly in April, 2011 heralded Orbán’s rejection of globalism and post-modernism. Its adoption demonstrates that the post-modern model of society is not irresistible. The preamble states, inter alia, that: “we Hungarians are proud that one thousand years ago our King, Saint Stephen, based the Hungarian state on solid foundations, and made the country a part of Christian Europe”;

“We are proud of our forebears who fought for the survival, freedom and independence of our country”;

“We are proud that our people have over the centuries defended Europe in a series of struggles…”;

Article L (1) states that “Hungary shall protect the institution of marriage as the union of a man and a woman…” and, according to Article L (2): “Hungary shall encourage the commitment to have children”.

These last two provisions in particular constitute a radical break from the Western liberal orthodoxy of recent decades.

Magyarphobia

Orbán has of course raised the ire of the liberal media and globalist politicians. His landslide victory in the 2018 election triggered a veritable hate fest. German public broadcaster ARD lambasted Hungary’s electoral system as unfair and argued that Hungary’s government had fed voters with disinformation. According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Hungarian voters had simply been “brainwashed”. Readers will note similarities with the attacks on the “stupid” UK electorate after the 2016 Brexit referendum. And of course Adolf Hitler had to come into it sooner or later: in 2019 Swedish minister Annika Strandhall compared Orbán’s pro-family policies to the Third Reich. The demonization of Orbán and Hungary looks set to continue into the foreseeable future.

Traditional Magyar Saying: ‘A Cowardly People Has No Homeland’

In an article in the Swiss weekly magazine Weltwoche in 2015, journalist Boris Kálnoky outlined the historical origins of Hungary’s intense preoccupation with its identity and survival as a nation. The Magyars’ self-image, he argued, is marked by an eternal struggle for survival. Kálnoky is surely right. The Hungarians gained control of the Carpathian basin in the 9th and 10th century and had established a Christian kingdom by around 1000, retaining their non-Indo-European language in the process. They lost many times: against the Mongols in 1241, the Turks in 1526 and the Russians in 1849. The Ausgleich of 1867 finally accorded them parity with the Austrians but in 1920 they lost two-thirds of their territory in the Treaty of Trianon and in 1956 their attempt to expel the Soviets ended in disaster but somehow they survived.

Speaking at an event to mark the 170th anniversary of Kossuth’s rebellion against the Austrians in 1848 Orbán warned: ” […] there are those who want to take our country from us. Not with the stroke of a pen, as happened one hundred years ago at Trianon; now they want us to voluntarily hand our country over to others, over a period of a few decades. They want us to hand it over to foreigners coming from other continents, who do not speak our language, and who do not respect our culture, our laws or our way of life: people who want to replace what is ours with what is theirs. What they want is that henceforth it will increasingly not be us and our descendants who live here, but others. […] Day by day we see the great European countries and nations losing their countries: little by little, from district to district and from city to city. The situation is that those who do not halt immigration at their borders are lost: slowly but surely they are consumed. External forces and international powers want to force all this upon us”.

L'articolo Viktor Orbán, Demography And Hungarian Identity proviene da InsideOver.

(Cairo) – Egypt gets ready to receive the largest shipment of train carriages in its history.

The carriages, to be manufactured by a consortium of Hungarian and Russian companies, is important for Egypt’s ongoing overhaul of the railways, which have been at the center of national concern for many years now, due to the repetition of railway accidents, ones that have so far claimed the lives of thousands of Egyptians.

Earlier this month, Minister of Transport Kamel al-Wazir met the Vice-President of Russian locomotives and rail equipment manufacturer, Transmashholding, Sergo-Shakhzada Kurbanov, to discuss the deal, which includes the import of 1,300 train carriages to be manufactured by the consortium.

Two model carriages are expected to arrive in Egypt for experimentation in September, in preparation for approval and then final delivery of the carriages. The one billion Euro deal between Egypt and the Russian-Hungarian consortium was signed almost a year ago. Some of the components of the new carriages will be manufactured in Egypt.

The signing of the deal came within the framework of Egypt’s efforts to rescue its creaky trains and improve the conditions of its railways. These railways, the oldest in Africa, turned into a death trap for Egyptians, because of the lack of maintenance and upgrade.

Most of the trains are old and railways operation systems are outdated. Coupled with a lack of training for railway workers and a lack of accountability, these old trains and outdated operation system caused crises over the years, the last of which took place in February this year at the central train station in downtown Cairo. The tragedy left 25 people dead and 45 others injured.

The deal between Egypt and the Russian-Hungarian consortium also includes the construction of a workshop for the maintenance of train carriages in Egypt.

Hungarian Ambassador in Cairo, Peter Kveck, described the deal as the “largest” in the history of relations between his country and Egypt. Egypt pins its hopes on the upgrade of its railways to prevent railway fatalities. It also hopes this upgrade will integrate it more into the world economy, especially with China moving ahead with its Belt and Road Initiative.

The Suez Canal, Egypt’s maritime passageway that links the Mediterranean with the Red Sea, is expected to become a principal component of the initiative. The canal will connect Asia with Africa, on one hand, and Africa with Europe, on the other. In April 2019, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said at the Belt and the Road summit in China that the goals of the initiative corresponded with the efforts made by his country in launching a number of mega-projects.

On top of those projects, he said, is the economic zone of the Suez Canal, which will become an international industrial, trade, and logistics center. “The zone provides promising opportunities for Chinese companies, other member states of the initiative, and all countries worldwide,” the Egyptian president said.

He noted that the zone could be a center for the production and re-export of goods to the entire world, particularly to Arab, African and European states linked with Egypt via free trade agreements. Those following developments of the initiative say that the railways can become at the center of all these efforts. Hungary will also be an integral part of the initiative. It is the first European country to participate in the Chinese plan, being located at the center of the Eurasian world.

Compounding the European country’s important location are also its strong relations with Beijing. These strong relations are why Hungary is being co-opted by China for a major role in the Belt and the Road Initiative.

L'articolo Russian-Hungarian Train Carriages for Egypt proviene da InsideOver.