Olenka Hamilton

‘The situation in Poland’ — Europe’s new scapegoat

When an EU country elects a government with nationalist or Eurosceptic policies, the European Parliament calls an urgent investigation into ‘the situation’ in that country. When Victor Orban became Prime Minister of Hungary in 2010 for example, the European Parliament called a debate entitled ‘the situation in Hungary’. Orban’s Fidesz party is known for its conservatism and its regard for national sovereignty. When Orban was democratically elected with a two thirds majority in the Hungarian Parliament, he was elected with a mandate to reform the state institutions, which had become corrupt under communist rule and had been stagnating ever since. When he set about enacting the above, the European Parliament accused him of aspiring to dictatorship by replacing enemies with friends within the judiciary. It then drafted a resolution which condemned Hungary for allowing for ‘a systemic deterioration of the rule of law’.

Hungary was asking for it. Its nationalist policies were considered a threat to EU integration —and rightly so. In response to the EU’s latest proposals to impose ‘quotas’ which would share migrants fairly amongst EU countries, Orban said:

‘[Hungary’s] problem is that the [European courts] see the world differently. They belong to part of Europe which represents the life that transcends the nation-state and we are below them because we live the lives of nation-states’.

Orban has also taken a tough stand against migrants who were forcing their way into Hungary. He was accused of inciting hate crimes for saying he wanted to keep ‘Hungary for Hungarians’ and ‘Europe for Europeans’. Inevitably, discussions on the situation in Hungary re-opened with renewed vigour and the resolution on the situation in Hungary was updated. ‘The situation in Hungary’ has, they say, taken a turn for the worse:

‘whereas recent initiatives and interference by the Hungarian Government, in particular over the past 12 months, have led to a serious and systemic deterioration of the rule of law as regards media freedom and pluralism, the fight against intolerance and discrimination, the rights of immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees, the freedom of assembly and association, the freedom of education and academic research, the equal treatment of religion and belief, restrictions on and obstacles to the activities of civil society organisations, the rights of people belonging to minorities, including Roma and LGBTI, the independence of the judiciary and many worrying allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest undermining the rule of law’.

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