EP Debate Reveals Collapse of Democratic Discourse and Accountability

Wednesday’s European Parliament presentation of the goals and progress of the Hungarian EU presidency has revealed the existence of two basic camps in the cathedral of European democracy: those working on policy on the one side, and those entirely bogged down in personal grievances and ideological warfare on the other.

European citizens have just had the chance to witness a spectacle that only occurs when the Hungarian Prime Minister enters the premises of one of the grand European institutions. On this occasion, the leader of one of these grand institution, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whose role should involve neutrality as well as setting an example for civility, adopted the role of the grand prosecutor instead. Further down the chain of hierarchy the ideologically radicalized legislature resembled an immature, impulse-driven revolutionary mob trying to operate a political guillotine.

The accused himself was then left to prove his own innocence, and in case he succeeded in doing so, to prove why innocence is preferable to guilt. In short, a factual presentation was transformed into a trial. A careful observer, however, will have realized soon after the debate that it was not simply Viktor Orbán and Hungarian conservativism that were on trial, not even the majority of Hungarian citizens who have voted for the veteran politician, electing him as Prime Minister four times in a row. Rather, it appeared as though it was simply the very principle of national sovereignty, civic values and the European way of life that were put on trial by people captivated by the same extinctionist sentiment that has already brought our continent to the brink of annihilation twice in the past hundred years or so.

For their part, Hungarian conservatives have learned just how closely their actions are scrutinized by their political opponents, and how inevitable it is that “bureau-federalists” will exploit their inconsistencies to the full extent. For instance, the Orbán government’s decision to release over 2000 convicted people smugglers in May last year has raised eyebrows even among their staunchest allies. The economic reasons listed for the amnesty, but even the fact that they were immediately thrown out of Hungary, or the argument that Hungarian taxpayers should not be the ones paying for Brussels’ disastrous immigration policies were all duly noted. However, the element of moral inconsistency that this has brought into the Hungarian narrative about illegal migration have created a vulnerability that still reverberates in the political arena, as was clearly apparent on Wednesday.

On a more recent note, the Prime Minister’s political advisor’s comments on what Hungarians would or would not have done in Volodymyr Zelensky’s place facing Russian aggression has again given unnecessary ammunition to those who clearly do not have Hungary’s best interest at their heart. Regardless of the fact that Balázs Orbán’s words were completely twisted and misinterpreted, the attacks only show that

the Hungarian national-conservative narrative must maintain its clarity and moral high-ground over the discourse of radical leftist bourgeoisie at all times.

The debate had also highlighted the fact that Hungary still does not have a credible opposition party that understands the needs and challenges facing this Central European nation. Instead, there stood in front of us another boy-band reject look-alike politician, artificially manufactured euro-echo chamber without an opinion of his own, without a discernible set of values, a vision, but most manifestly, without a conscience preventing him from joining the anti-Hungarian cacophony. Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar’s entire five minute speech could have been stitched together from newspaper headlines in the European mainstream media from the first, to the very last sentence. Sitting smugly next to his main European sponsor, the great puppeteer of faux-conservativism, Manfred Weber, the leader of the Hungarian TISZA party’s performance could be best described as a textbook demonstration of unflinching loyalty towards the EP’s dominant elite. Weber’s reaction to his speech reminded one of the famous scene in Martin Scorsese’s epic, Goodfellas, when the wise guy walks up to his junior protege after a court hearing, slips a dollar bill in his pocket and says: “You learned the two greatest things in life: never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut”.

Manfred Weber though, among many of his vices, cannot be accused of not being perfectly consistent: pathologically bitter, vengeful, ruthless and calculating. In his speech he kept advocating the German-enforced interpretation of European solidarity that for us in Central Europe sounds something like: “we will come up with what is best for German interests, then repackage it as European values, after which you are welcome to rubber stamp it in the name of unity”. Weber and his allies still cannot stomach the fact that Hungarians have not been sold on being told how to live their lives and what to think through a simple majority vote in the European Parliament. But Weber’s conduct and his transformation of the EPP into a  mule of trans-atlantic radical left-wing ideologies is the ideal tool for studying and understanding why his own twin party, the CDU/CSU coalition is the absolute epicenter of policies turning the European Union into a wasteland. Not the Greens, not the Marxist revolutionary zealots, but Germany’s centrist-parties bear the overwhelming responsibility for our cultural destruction and economic decline. And that recisely because they have managed to convince the electorate that they are occupying the center ground, where most “decent” people feel at comfort.

The leader of the Hungarian opposition, Péter Magyar, currently investigated on suspicion of theft in his home country, was not the only speaker using his or her parliamentary immunity to avoid criminal prosecution. Alleged Antifa member, Italian MEP Ilaria Salis, who was on trial for attacking innocent Hungarians and foreign tourists with her extremist comrades in Budapest, saw no contradiction in lecturing the Hungarian Prime Minister on the rule of law. Only the European Parliament can offer a platform for such an absurd disparity and travesty of justice.

Salis’ presence in the house is the measure of how low the European project had sunk. Psychologically unhinged extremists taking a democratically elected leader of a nation to task.

The occasional cheering of the Patriots for Europe MEPs was perhaps the only voice, without doubt a defiant one, where the voice of the majority of ordinary citizens had managed to seep through right to the parliament’s floor. A fresh green shoot in the luxury steel and glass mausoleum of European political discourse that the EP has become. It has also become clear that even though Hungary will maintain its sovereign, independent course, be it a road to bliss or perdition, the rest of Europe continues to suffer from Stockholm syndrome in the captivity of radical Islam on the streets, and a dead-end, post-Marxist civilizational dementia in their halls of power.

Yesterday at the @Europarl_EN I had hoped to engage in a debate about our EU-presidency program. Instead, MEP’s and President @vonderleyen turned the debate into a party-political confrontation. I deeply regret this, but I could not remain silent or indebted. If #Hungary is… pic.twitter.com/BcEgTRUbE2

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) October 10, 2024

The entertainment value of charades like the one provided by some members of the EP could be of certain value until we realize that war is surrounding Europe at an ever larger extent and intensity, and is closing in on all sides. Our societies are facing an existential identity crisis, our energy sector or agriculture are teetering on the abyss. All the while our European top politicians are uninterested in adding anything of substance to central questions raised by the Hungarian presidency, such as migration or economic competitiveness. They can only muster a few petty, vulgar comments at the Hungarian Prime Minister’s account.

The fact that even the French President, who is not exactly known for loosing much sleep over any crisis facing our continent, is warning against the destruction of the European project, should raise some alarm. Apparently a new supra-national political class has emerges that does not have to fear the electoral consequences of its own failures as long as they keep signalling loyalty towards the dominant political clans. In this context Hungarian voters at home will have no choice but to find a way to keep politicians in power who will insulate them from the type of moral dwarfism and political adventurism that has reared its ugly head in Strasbourg this Wednesday.

 

Featured Image: Alain ROLLAND, European Union 2024 – Source: EP