At a rally to commemorate the 1956 Hungarian Uprising, Hungary’s Viktor Orban compared the EU to the Soviet Union and criticized the bloc’s support for Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing invasion.
Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday likened the European Union to the former Soviet Union and called on Hungarians to “resist” Brussels as they did Moscow in 1956.
Orban, who is closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin than any other European leader, drew the comparison in a speech marking the 1956 Hungarian Uprising against Soviet occupation, which was brutally put down by Russian troops.
Around 3,000 people were killed and 20,000 injured.
I bet that the EU wishes that they’d added clauses to allow members to be booted out.
If they REALLY wanted to they would. Hungary is one of the more eastern countries in Europe. If it leaves it allies with Russia or even joins it potentially. That would throw a serious wrench in the EU’s defense structure.
It kinda wouldn’t, though, considering their location.
Not unless Russia fully takes over Ukraine and has a direct line to Hungary, which I’m low key pretty suspicious was part of Putin’s original plan.
Europe is pretty densely populated and Hungary is bordering a lot of other EU nations. If it allies or joins Russia, then the EU will have what America had with the Cuban missile crisis back in the 60s. Russian arms and forces will be based in Hungary and be able to strike several capitals of nations in the EU within a moments notice. The entire reason Russia needs to take over Ukraine is because they can’t allow NATO forces to get so close to their capital as the Ukrainian borders is only a few hundred km away from Moscow. Same logic applies with Hungary.
Yep. Vienna, Bratislava, and Prague are all within a couple hours of Budapest.
What defense structure does EU have besides sanctions?
The EU has a mutual defense clause.
Similar to NATO, an attack on any EU nation is an attack on all EU nations.
The EU one is actually more strongly worded than the NATO one, if I recall correctly. Basically NATO’s standards are to strongly suggest countrues help in whatever way the country thinks necessary but not require it. EU’s requires countries to provide support including military support.
In writing, but in reality, almost no one in NATO is ready to fight.
Luckily, neither is Russia.
We were talking about the EU. NATO was just an example.
The parts of NATO that aren’t ready to fight are exclusively in the EU.
EU buddied up to Russia for too long and considered US/UK/Poland’s defense buildup bad, now we’re all here.
I just hope the next Australian government will take China seriously.