Betrayal and Redesign

Mr Orbán points out that as the European peoples turned to the Right, the Euroelites did everything in their power to maintain the anti-European, anti-Western status quo.

From The European Conservative

By Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary

"It is up to us, the European right, to enforce the will of European voters."

Europe is in crisis. The Christian civilization that provides the framework of our lives is disappearing. The European Union is also in decline. The continent’s global economic weight has steadily and considerably decreased over the past three decades. The European order is evaporating before our eyes, with a permanent threat of terrorism and deteriorating public safety. Europe’s ability to assert its interests in international politics has also diminished—isolation and bloc formation while a war rages next door. All of this has left the nations of Europe in a challenging situation and made the everyday lives of its citizens more difficult. What Europeans see is war, migration, and stagnation instead of peace, order, and development. 

The situation is aggravated by the fact that the Brussels bureaucracy, living in a bubble, has made many grave political missteps in recent years. Europe is drifting ever closer to a war from which the continent has nothing to gain and everything to lose. Yet we see every day that there are no lengths to which they would not go—nothing is too expensive—when it comes to war. The Brussels bureaucrats want this war, they see it as their own, and they want to defeat Russia. They are burning Europeans’ money to support Ukraine. They have shot European companies in the foot by sanctions, inflation has soared, and have plunged millions of European citizens into economic hardship. These Brussels bureaucrats have worsened the continent’s competitiveness through tax increases and have become embroiled in tit-for-tat struggles with Europe’s most important trading partners. They also mismanaged the green transition: today, Europe uses more coal than five years ago, and energy prices are higher than ever. European farmers are protesting against the gutting of their sector, while cheap Ukrainian agricultural products of dubious quality pour into Europe at submarket prices. 

The enlargement of the EU through the accession of the Western Balkan nations has almost entirely stalled—only the heroic struggles of the Hungarian Enlargement Commissioner have made some progress in this regard. It remains clear that he EU needs the new member states and their economic power more than ever before. Thanks to a disastrous migration policy, illegal migrants continue to flood into the Schengen area. In Brussels, however, instead of adopting the practices of countries that have successfully halted migration, such as Hungary, they are punishing these member states and trying to force them to admit migrants. It is well-known that the population in Africa will increase by an additional 750 million people by 2040. Hungary would warn everyone that while border fences may still impede African migrants today, with such rapidly increasing numbers we can only hope economic development in Africa in the medium term will lead to its populations making their livelihoods at home. Europe should launch a major development program in Africa, but such a plan is not even on the horizon in Brussels. 

Yet, Brussels bureaucrats are unquestionably successful in one thing: weakening nation-states and strengthening their own power. This elite evokes the memory of the (old) communists. They do not look out for the interests of the people but rather force their own agenda on them. Their current obsession is a toxic stew of green politics and mixed society. And if the European people do not like it, woe unto them. 

These crises, and the deterioration of Ukraine’s prospects in the war, were clear sign long before the European Parliamentary elections that change is greatly needed in Europe. Things cannot go on like this! The vast majority of Europeans feel the same way and they clearly expressed this at the ballot box in June. 

Europeans have also made it clear that they expected this change to come from the right. The election results clearly reflect this: instead of left-wing progressives and pro-war parties, voters overwhelmingly opted for parties promising change. In twenty of the twenty-seven EU countries, sovereigntists or right-wing parties that campaigned explicitly on the promise of change were victorious. The left-wing French and Belgian governments fell immediately after the election, and the government in Berlin is still reeling. The European people have made it clear that they want to end the war next door, get rid of progressive ideology, stop migration, and see the European economy put on a path of growth. 

So far, so good. As expected, the peoples of Europe started to take back Europe. But then the Brussels bureaucrats launched a counterattack. The European People’s Party (EPP) was persuaded to join forces with socialists and liberals interested in maintaining the status quo. The EPP won votes in the election by campaigning for change, but now, going back on their word, they have teamed up with the socialists and liberals who are putting Europe in grave danger. 

The EPP and the parties of the left simply ignored the will of the European people and concluded a shameful pact, allowing them to share power. This is blatant abuse of the mandate given to them by the voters. Indeed, a pro-war coalition has been re-established with the sole purpose of keeping the same Brussels elite that has plunged Europe into crisis in power for at least another five years. It is as clear as day that this is why they want to keep a Commission President who is ultimately responsible for the failures of recent years in power. The people voted for change but through the betrayal of the EPP, the entrenched elites outwitted them and fended off the first attack to re-take Brussels. 

It is up to us, the European right, to enforce the will of European voters. Our first effort was beaten back, and this week we returned to the drawing board. Despite the pact to block the will of the voters, we will continue to build on cooperation between European right-wing parties. Right-wing parties should create strong European Parliamentary groups, and then develop cooperation between those groups. Two decisive events will take place on Sunday and so we should keep our eyes on Paris and Vienna. Yesterday, America also took a big step towards change. If everything goes according to plan and the Lord aids us, by the end of the year the patriots will hold majorities across the Western world. To work! 

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This op-ed was published by Magyar Nemzet on June 29, 2024.