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Amid humanitarian crisis and war, the EU sanctions Hungary and Poland for not going ‘woke’

March 14, 2022 | | Print Article

In a move that makes one wonder if the world has gone insane, the European Parliament voted last week to hit Hungary and Poland — two nations desperately trying to accommodate millions of Ukrainian refugees — with crushing economic sanctions for failing to be sufficiently woke for the EU’s liking.

In a 478 to 155 vote, with 29 abstentions, members of the European Parliament (MEPs) “welcomed the European Court of Justice’s recent judgment dismissing the actions by Hungary and Poland against the Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation, as well as the Court’s conclusions that the regulation is in line with EU law and its powers as regards rule of law,” stated the MEP’s press release.

“Parliament stresses that it is ‘high time’ for the Commission to fulfill its duties as the guardian of the EU Treaties and react to the ongoing violations of the principles of the rule of law in some EU member states, which pose a danger to the European Union’s financial interests.”

The Rule of Law Conditionality Regulation allows the European Commission to suspend the payment of funds from the EU budget to those member states that do not stand up to the values set forth in Article 2 of the 2007 Treaty on European Union, which states:

The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.

 

So what have Hungary and Poland done to violate those terms?

According to Miranda Devine in an opinion piece for the New York Post, “Their sin is to have conservative populist governments that rejected open border and LGBTQ policies imposed by Brussels.”

“Like Florida and Texas, Poland and Hungary have passed laws banning schools from indoctrinating young children on gender ideology and sexual orientation,” Devine writes. “And the nations refused to allow illegal migrants from the Middle East overrun their borders after Germany’s Angela Merkel unilaterally ushered millions of mainly young Muslim men into Europe in 2015 during the Syrian crisis.”

According to the MEP release, “taxpayers’ money needs to be protected against those who undermine the EU’s values.”

The move to “protect” European citizens comes, coincidentally, “just  three weeks before Hungary’s conservative nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban asks voters for a fifth term,” notes Devine.

Given the timing, Orban’s chief political adviser Bolasz Orban (no relation) believes the EU’s “intervention” is tantamount to election interference, adding that Hungary has shouldered “ridiculous pressure for years” from Brussels as a result of its conservative policies that put families and their citizens first.

“Liberal policies became very popular in some of the Brussels institutions, especially in the European Parliament,” Orban told Devine from Budapest.

“Those politicians, the majority are leftists, liberal, green progressives,” he continued. “Politically, they are on a different side. The problem is they think about European cooperation from an ideological point of view when it never was originally about ideological homogeneity [but] economic prosperity.”

For a country of 10 million people, accommodating approximately 400,000 Ukrainian refugees is no simple task, “[b]ut Hungary wants to retain the right to distinguish between illegal migrants from half a world away and refugees fleeing a war zone next door,” Devine writes.

As Orban stated, the EU is attempting to “destroy all the legal mechanisms which are necessary to secure out borders, the structures we invented, the fence, the physical borders and legal mechanisms … They want to make it impossible [to stop] illegal migrants.”

It’s a goal that is painfully familiar to Americans who view the influx of migrants flowing across the Southern border, unchecked by President Biden’s administration, in much the same way.

And that’s not the only similarity.

The EU is also pushing Hungary to overturn its laws that ban the subject of gender fluidity in its children’s classrooms.

“They say it goes against homosexuality and sexual minorities,” Orban said. “That’s a lie. Hungary is a free country. Everyone can do whatever he or she wants after the age of 18 but we are protecting our children and saving them from gender propaganda starting in kindergarten and they are attacking that.”

It’s a war being waged in Florida right now, as Governor Ron DeSantis stands against those who would disingenuously label his legislation preventing the subjects of sexual and gender identities from being discussed to kids who have not yet graduated the third grade the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

“To understand Hungary’s plight, imagine Washington, DC, was Brussels and the Biden administration was in permanent rule,” writes Devine. “A horrible thought.”

“Currently, four of the five largest member states of the EU — Italy, Spain, France and Germany — are led by progressive, green or liberal governments,” she continues. “Only Poland is majority conservative.”

What if the situation were reversed, Orban wonders. What if a conservative majority were trying to impose their beliefs on small progressive nations like Sweden?

“Smug leftists should remember that the worm always turns,” Devine cautions, “so it is best to treat your opponents as you would wish to be treated.”

Melissa Fine
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