Orban is blocking not only Ukraine’s accession to the EU, but also the allocation of money to Kiev.
Democratic Ukraine in the EU is a big internal political problem for Viktor Orbán. The Hungarian Prime Minister is not simply relaying Vladimir Putin's interests to the EU.
Daniel Geredush, a researcher at the American Herman Marshall Foundation, writes about this in the Visegrad Insight publication.
“During the years of Orban’s rule, Hungary has noticeably degraded, in particular economically. If in the early 2000s, among the countries of central and eastern Europe, only the Czech Republic was ahead of it in terms of GDP growth, now Hungary is behind everyone except Bulgaria and Croatia. Slovakia, Poland and Romania became more competitive. This affected migration, the standard of living, and long-term economic prospects. Orban chose the path to strengthen the vertical of power and patronage democracy gradually shifted towards autocracy,” the expert writes.
With the help of propaganda, Orban somehow manages to convince the population that the chosen path is correct – and also that one should not rely only on the EU, one must seek support from other allies, in particular, in authoritarian Russia . Ukraine is moving in the opposite direction.
“If democratic Ukraine manages to repel the attack of the dictatorial regime and join the West, this will demonstrate two things to the Hungarians. Firstly, that Hungary does not know how to choose allies. And secondly, that the EU is a reliable partner. This “Orban's power will be shaken. That's why he is blocking not only Ukraine's entry into the EU, but also the allocation of money to Kyiv,” Geredus believes.
Orban needs Ukraine to lose – and the worse it gets, the better it will be for him.
The British newspaper The Times published an article saying that Ukraine is unlikely to join the European Union until 2030. According to journalists, the main obstacle to joining the EU is war and poverty in the country.
The publication writes that if Ukraine joins the EU, this will cause significant changes in the union, which will become the most radical in recent decades.
“How the EU will 'swallow' Ukraine, a country that, before Russia's invasion, was already the poorest in Europe?” – says The Times.
Viktor Orban said that he saw no reason to start negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. On December 15, it became known that Viktor Orban vetoed the allocation of 50 billion euros to Ukraine from the European Union.
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