The European Union on Wednesday began the process of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros in funds meant to go Hungary after its ant-migrant government refused to pay a huge fine for breaking the bloc’s asylum rules.
In June, the EU’s top court ordered Hungary to pay 200 million euros ($223 million) for persistently depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum. The court imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros for every day it failed to comply.
The European Court of Justice described Hungary’s actions as “an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán slammed its ruling as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
*Breaks the law
*Is convicted
*Refuses to pay fines
*Stops receiving funds
*shockedpikachu.jpg
At this point I really can’t understand what is driving Orban anymore. He obviously must have known this would happen, and is likely doing it on purpose so that he can point at the EU as the “bad guy” back home, but like… what does he gain from this? Isn’t it better to just get a shitload of free money from the EU that you can funnel to your friends and family than to not do that? If he legitimately dislikes the EU he can just leave.
Maybe he’s just sticking around as long as he can grab cash? It kind of seems like he’s going for the “see how far you can push it before you’re kicked out” play. Essentially trying to find out how much of an obstructing, law-breaking, corrupt asshole he has to be before the rest of the EU finally has enough and kicks him out, at which point he can peace out to some safe-haven (I’ve heard there are spare rooms in some of Putins palaces).
At this point I really can’t understand what is driving Orban anymore.
If he stops stealing, his empire collapses, and he (or his family who are also involved) might even see some form of consequences. The EU does not let him steal any more, hence the openness to the East.
after its ant-migrant government
Lol, editing.
And just to be clear, the fine is not for denying asylum, but for not processing queries. No one is forcing Hungary to admit anyone, they just need to do their job and follow their own laws and reply to queries.
BTW, Hungary is currently importing a ton of immigrants from East Asia to break Hungarian unions, and also Russian and Chinese spies.
I’m sure 99.99% of Russian immigrants aren’t spies. Bringing in Russians genuinely damages Russia’s ability to carry out the war though; they’re down to a 2.6% unemployment rate and real wages are up like 40%.
They’re taking significant measures to get soldiers and labor, and the more Russians flee, the more they have to do to get labor and troops.
… and the more Russians flee, the more they have to do to get labor and troops.
Well technically they don’t ‘have’ to do that, ie: if Putin put his dick back in his pants and shut down the war, Russian citizens wouldn’t be leaving en masse.
Well yes, of course, just as Zelenskyy could end the people fleeing Ukraine by accepting a peace deal.
The same applies to the west not accepting Ukraine’s extradition requests of its draft dodgers so far.
Every bomb and soldier that enters the conflict, on either side, is a bad day for someone, statistically mostly civilians.
Don’t get me wrong, I actually don’t mind Russians being able to make a better life for themselves, I’m happy for them if they can leave and move and be happy.
It’s just that Russian spies have been moving openly in Budapest, several years ago there was this one guy who defaced a Soviet monument - that IMO has no place standing outside a museum, much less Freedom Square in Budapest. A random Chechen without ID or documentation or a reason for being in the country or Schengen appeared and coerced the guy to apologize publicly.
It’s a disgrace that an undocumented Russian citizen can appear in an EU country, brazenly commit a crime of coercion against an EU citizen while livestreaming it on Youtube, and the authorities of said country just stand by doing nothing and covering for him.
All I’m saying is that I have no illusions of the intentions of Hungary’s government in removing all visa restrictions, specifically and only for Russian and Belarusian citizens.
The European Union on Wednesday began the process of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros in funds meant to go Hungary after its ant-migrant government refused to pay a huge fine for breaking the bloc’s asylum rules.
I’m pretty sure there are other things they aren’t doing, more fines seem in order.
In fact, keep fining them till their net contribution to the EU is 0.
Gotta fine them more than that. Lots more,it has to be painful for them at this point. As it is right now we REALLY don’t need them in the EU like that.
I would agree.
But I think it helps everyone’s cause more to simply ignore them utterly.
These worthless ‘hyper-masculine’ fascist trash, the worst thing you can do to them is show them how impotent they really are without even putting in effort.
Trump was humiliated at the debate, we just do the same to all these other Russian funded losers.
Ignore them, make it clear they’re nothing and nobody cares.
It burns them more than literally everything else, they’re spoiled children throwing a tantrum, let them.
In my personal experience, ignoring them really doesn’t help anyone but them. They will find a way to spin that into their favour.
And to perhaps go on a short tangent : one of the best ways to get rid of an infection is to kill it. Even our body’s immune system knows about that and is usually doing just that. To the point where it just orders sick body cells to die.
In other words. Not helping them by not giving them any more free real estate is not enough, you need to make their lives actively miserable.
Or yet again in other words, not paying them any more money is not good enough to stop otban or Hungary, you actually need to make it hurt for them if they keep doing what they want. Give their actions actual consequences.
As it stands right now Hungary is best either out of the EU or at least has ALL their rights taken away from them while it stays how it is. Including all the EU funds and then some.
They play hardball? You need to play hardball better than them. Simple as that.
What’s the political situation in Hungary? If Orban is ousted, how likely is the next guy to be less fascist?
Somehow taking this money out of a large swath of money the EU is sending Hungary does not feel just.
