I understand your frustration at the gleeful vandalistic behaviour of Hungary's Victor Orban, and the stench of gangrenous mind-rot that 80 years of the Russian garrotte left on the political intelligence of many Eastern Europeans. Some have recovered the blood circulation in their brains. Romania and the three Baltic States are examples. Others, notably Hungary and now Slovakia, have not.
I understand but I urge teeth-gritting restraint. My ancestral land Ireland suffered from the aftermath of sectarian imperialism for many years under Eamonn De Valera and Basil Lord Brookeborough. The Republic emerged from that suffocating influence just in time when De Valera retired. Hungary may one day recover from its current intellectual trauma.
Let us look forward to Time's solution to the Orban problem.
EU: The current rules for the EU do not have any provisions for expulsion.
NATO: Expulsion requires unanimous support from all other member nations. Turkey is unlikely to vote for expulsion.
Hungary will remain a member of both EU and NATO. It's unfortunate, but at some point, Hungary voters either choose a liberal democracy or accept readmittance as an SSR, in which case, both EU and NATO would quickly figure out how to disengage. But we're nowhere close to that happening.
Thanks, B. In the West, I think we hoped that an expansion of the liberal democracy model would allow us to treat the exceptions with a light touch. Now that we know how insidious anti-democratic forces are in today's world, I agree with you - the gloves must come off. However, forcing a country out of NATO because of a bad election (or four) might be short-sighted. Look how the Poles have curtailed their right-wingers. Perhaps, NATO and the EU should develop a series of sanctions based on a nation's performance on various factors related to free speech, transparency, attitudes toward fascist governments, open media, etc. For example, a country could lose its Schengen privileges if it mis-behaves.
I understand your frustration at the gleeful vandalistic behaviour of Hungary's Victor Orban, and the stench of gangrenous mind-rot that 80 years of the Russian garrotte left on the political intelligence of many Eastern Europeans. Some have recovered the blood circulation in their brains. Romania and the three Baltic States are examples. Others, notably Hungary and now Slovakia, have not.
I understand but I urge teeth-gritting restraint. My ancestral land Ireland suffered from the aftermath of sectarian imperialism for many years under Eamonn De Valera and Basil Lord Brookeborough. The Republic emerged from that suffocating influence just in time when De Valera retired. Hungary may one day recover from its current intellectual trauma.
Let us look forward to Time's solution to the Orban problem.
EU: The current rules for the EU do not have any provisions for expulsion.
NATO: Expulsion requires unanimous support from all other member nations. Turkey is unlikely to vote for expulsion.
Hungary will remain a member of both EU and NATO. It's unfortunate, but at some point, Hungary voters either choose a liberal democracy or accept readmittance as an SSR, in which case, both EU and NATO would quickly figure out how to disengage. But we're nowhere close to that happening.
Thanks, B. In the West, I think we hoped that an expansion of the liberal democracy model would allow us to treat the exceptions with a light touch. Now that we know how insidious anti-democratic forces are in today's world, I agree with you - the gloves must come off. However, forcing a country out of NATO because of a bad election (or four) might be short-sighted. Look how the Poles have curtailed their right-wingers. Perhaps, NATO and the EU should develop a series of sanctions based on a nation's performance on various factors related to free speech, transparency, attitudes toward fascist governments, open media, etc. For example, a country could lose its Schengen privileges if it mis-behaves.
Call in their EU debts and give them their freedom to join the dark side