BBC: Who is Viktor Orban

He was still a law student at Bibo College in the capital, Budapest, when in 1989 he delivered an audacious, seven-minute speech calling on the Soviet Red Army to go home.

"If we believe in our own power, we are able to finish the communist dictatorship," he declared to an estimated quarter of a million Hungarians gathered in the city's Heroes' Square for the reburial of the man behind Hungary's failed uprising in 1956, Imre Nagy.

He was 23 when he married fellow student Aniko Levai, whom he met at university. They have five children, four daughters and a son, Gaspar, who was trained by the British Army at Sandhurst and serves as an officer in the Hungarian army in Chad.

The European Parliament has accused Hungary of backsliding on the rule of law, corruption and LGBT rights.

Viktor Orban argues that the EU is going in the wrong direction on Ukraine, because he believes Kyiv can never win the war.

BBC 31 January 2024

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-67832416

1989 i Budapest, när vad som ännu fanns kvar av den Kadaristiska ordningen nästan dagligen föll sönder, krävde han vid ett massmöte att ryssarna skulle lämna Ungern. 

Jag var där och trodde inte mina öron. Ingen hade offentligt vågat säga något sådant förut. 

Richard Swartz DN 23 mars 2019

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2022/04/hungarian-prime-minister-viktor-orban.html

Vi förstod inte att östeuropéer skulle betrakta Bryssel som ett nytt Moskva.

Richard Swartz DN 6 oktober 2018

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2018/10/vi-forstod-inte-att-osteuropeer-skulle.html

European Union leaders are threatening to punish Hungary

... if it blocks a $54 billion aid package for Ukraine this week, a sign of growing anxiety across the continent about the dangers of a Russian victory in Ukraine.

The bloc’s leaders are set to return to Brussels on Wednesday evening and will seek to agree Thursday on the 50 billion euro package that would provide to Kyiv critical budget support in paying for basic services over the next four years. Without EU approval, Ukraine could start running out of funds to cover salaries and pensions as early as the coming weeks, just as its military forces have been pushed onto the defensive by Russia.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban blocked the aid package in December, forcing EU leaders to reconvene. Now, EU diplomats are talking about stripping Hungary of some voting rights and withholding additional EU budget funds from Budapest if Orban blocks the Ukraine aid again.

Wall Street Journal 1 February 2024

https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/europe-warns-hungary-to-back-ukraine-aid-or-face-consequences-1dea4b5b

The EU’s €50bn package to Ukraine 

Europe’s purse-strings have been kept tight by three factors. 

One is that some politicians, notably in western Europe, may have silently been fine with Ukraine getting a trickle of money—enough for it not to lose but not to win too comprehensively either, lest that humiliate Russia. That may have been the case in the war’s early stages, but feels out of date now. Still, keeping the authorities in Kyiv on a short leash has its advantages, for example if Ukraine one day needs to be pushed towards the negotiating table.

The second is that assistance to Ukraine often comes not in the form of cash, but of military equipment. There is not much left in national armouries to send east, so shells and cannons need to be made instead. Some countries, notably France, want to ensure the weapons are manufactured in Europe (ie France, often). The aim is not for local firms to profit, though that doesn’t hurt, but for arms-making capacity to be built up as part of plans for Europe to bolster its “strategic autonomy”. 

The third reason for Europe’s stinginess is that Ukraine has been caught in the eu’s internal wrangling. The mooted €50bn has been sourced through the bloc’s institutions in Brussels

The Economist 25 January 2024

https://www.economist.com/europe/2024/01/25/the-eus-help-to-ukraine-is-a-far-cry-from-its-rhetoric

Macron Urges European Strategic Autonomy

“Strategic autonomy must be the battle of Europe,” 

“We don’t want to depend on others for critical topics,” Macron said in the interview, , citing issues such as energy, defense, social media and artificial intelligence. 

Englund: Macron Urges European Strategic Autonomy (englundmacro.blogspot.com)

Frankrike och Tyskland har långtgående planer

Annika Ström Melin DN 19 december 2023

Englund: Vetorätten i EU håller på att bli historia. Frankrike och Tyskland har långtgående planer (englundmacro.blogspot.com)