In May this year Donald Trump bestowed the greatest possible compliment on Viktor Orbán — comparing the Hungarian leader to himself.
Orbán is “probably like me," Trump said in a joint appearance
at the White House with the visiting Hungarian prime minister.
"A little
bit controversial, but that’s OK ... you’ve done a good job, and you’ve
kept your country safe," he said, while declaring that Orbán — one of
the EU's most controversial leaders — "has done a tremendous job" and is
“respected all over Europe.”
No Hungarian prime minister has visited the White House since 2005,
and Orbán has not set foot in the Oval Office for over two decades. The
Hungarian leader was the only EU head of government to endorse Trump’s
campaign during the 2016 election, but for more than two years he failed
to get an invitation to the White House, leading to a Hungarian
government lobbying
effort to try to secure a coveted meeting.
Wearing an orange tie — the color of his ruling Fidesz party — Orbán
joked about his long absence from the White House, saying that being in
the building made him feel young.
The Hungarian prime minister said he wanted to use the meeting with
Trump to "strengthen our strategical alliance" and said he was proud to
stand with the U.S. on fighting illegal immigration and terrorism, as
well as helping Christian communities.
U.S. officials have long worried about Orbán's moves to undermine
independent institutions at home, while the Hungarian leader's
increasingly friendly relations with Moscow and Beijing have raised
concerns across the American political spectrum. The role of Chinese and
Russian state-owned companies in Hungary was set to be among the topics
discussed duringWhite House talks.
But sitting next to Orbán ahead of their private meeting, Trump called Hungary “a very good member of NATO."
Asked about
concerns of democratic backsliding
in Hungary, Trump told reporters that Orbán is a “tough man but he is a
respected man” who has “done the right thing according to many people
on immigration. And you look at some of the problems that they have in
Europe that are tremendous because they have done it a different way
than the prime minister.”
All by all this friendship between Orban and and Trump is very toxic to the well-being of the EU.
Let us also not forget that the Central European University in Hungary, founded and funded by
Hungarian-American billionaire George Soros after the collapse of the
Soviet Union to spread principles of democracy and free society, was forced from its campus in Budapest by the far-right government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
The move came after a two-year struggle with the Orban government,
which has blocked political and intellectual dissent and increased
control over much of Hungarian life.
The university, which has
1,435 students from 118 countries,
teaches in English and has a reputation as one of the top schools in
the region. It will move its U.S.-accredited degree programs to Vienna
where it started enrolling students last fall fall.
In an incredulous-sounding statement, CEU president Michael Ignatieff
said, “This is unprecedented. A U.S. institution has been driven out of
a country that is a NATO ally. A European institution has been ousted
from a member state of the EU.”
The statement went on to say, “Arbitrary
eviction of a reputable university is a flagrant violation of academic
freedom. It is a dark day for Europe and a dark day for Hungary.”
Indeed, it appears to be the first time a major university has been
forced to leave an EU country.
Bottom-line, the EU Commission must stop sitting on its hands and start dealing in a far more serious way with Mr. Orban. There is absolutely no need to encourage Nationalist Populists like Mr Orban to further endanger the integrity and democratic principles the EU is based on.
EU-Digest
