The main conclusion that the United States administration could draw from the results of the parliamentary elections in Hungary and the stunning failure of Viktor Orbán is that Europe is not going anywhere, and the citizens of European Union countries want to remain Europeans. For many years, the Hungarian prime minister exploited an anti-European idea, and perhaps that is precisely why he earned such respect from both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Putin. After all, as paradoxical as it may seem, weakening the European Union is of almost equal interest to Washington, Moscow, and even Beijing. Of course, it is easier to deal with each individual European country than with a united bloc of European states. But it seems to me that such logic should be characteristic primarily of authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, whereas the world’s largest democratic country–the United States–should be interested in cooperation with democratic European nations united in an effective alliance.
The main conclusion that the United States administration could draw from the results of the parliamentary elections in Hungary and the stunning failure of Viktor Orbán is that Europe is not going anywhere, and the citizens of European Union countries want to remain Europeans. For many years, the Hungarian prime minister exploited an anti-European idea, and perhaps that is precisely why he earned such respect from both U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Putin. After all, as paradoxical as it may seem, weakening the European Union is of almost equal interest to Washington, Moscow, and even Beijing. Of course, it is easier to deal with each individual European country than with a united bloc of European states. But it seems to me that such logic should be characteristic primarily of authoritarian or totalitarian regimes, whereas the world’s largest democratic country–the United States–should be interested in cooperation with democratic European nations united in an effective alliance.
Orbán’s rule has indeed come at a high cost to Ukraine. There were no grounds for the deterioration of Hungarian-Ukrainian relations except one–the willingness of Budapest to support Moscow. There were no reasons to accuse Ukraine of violating the rights of Hungarians in Zakarpattia. Yet Orbán not only made such statements but also invested resources in shaping a corresponding political atmosphere in Ukraine’s border region. This despite the fact that Zakarpattian Hungarians remained one of the few national communities in Europe that managed to preserve their native language, national traditions, education, and political representation–all on Ukrainian soil. I once advised the Hungarian prime minister to take an interest in the fate of two other Hungarian peoples–the Khanty and the Mansi–who live in Russia. Under Putin, they have effectively lost their language, their ability to read the poetry and prose of their own writers, and even the symbolic attributes of their national identity–despite living on land whose wealth could rival that of the United Arab Emirates and could therefore provide at least some conditions for their development. Yet instead of defending Hungarian peoples before Putin, Orbán chose to speculate on the issue of Zakarpattian Hungarians in his dealings with Poroshenko or Zelenskyy. This once again illustrates the insincerity of a politician who was more pro-Russian than pro-Hungarian–and, of course, more pro-Russian than pro-American.
Trump, too, should draw conclusions from this–if he is able to open his eyes: those who work against European unity will never truly consider the global interests of the United States. For such politicians, Moscow is far closer than Washington.
Author: Vitaly Portnikov
