German Greens and CDU Want to Make Disobedient Slovakia an Example, Just Like Hungary

The people of Slovakia have spoken during the weekend presidential elections, but neither Germany’s government parties, nor members of the main opposition party are happy with the result. After the election of centrist Peter Pellegrini, and the defeat of the progressive forces’ candidate, Ivan Korcok, they are calling for the “Hungarian model” to be applied against the Slovaks: punishment, withdrawal of EU funds, political pressure and expulsion from the EU.

Norbert Röttgen of the opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU), who was Federal Minister for Environment and Nuclear Safety and Chair of the Bundestag Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that Slovakia, together with Hungary, should leave the European Union, reported the Tagesspiegel. In his view, president-elect Peter Pellegrini and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico “openly” sympathize with Vladimir Putin, while he also called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán “Putin’s Trojan horse in the EU” in the Funke Mediengruppe. “The EU must not and cannot continue to tolerate this”, the CDU politician emphasized.
“Anyone who sides with the aggressor here does not belong in the EU.”

Orbán’s “blackmail policy” should no longer be rewarded, “he must be shown the door”,

the former Federal Minister continued. “Slovakia must then decide whether it wants to follow Orban or remain in the EU”, said the CDU foreign policy expert.

The far-left Green’s MP, Anton Hofreiter, did not mince his words either. The Chairman of the European Affairs Committee in the Bundestag reportedly called for sending a strong “warning” to the Slovakian government.

If they “take an axe to the Slovakian rule of law and open the floodgates to corruption, no more money should flow from EU funds”, reported the Tagesspiegel as Hofreiter saying. “We cannot afford another Orban,”

he said.

Pellegrini’s main transgression is apparently to have defeated the candidate supported by the opposition radical left-wing Progressive Slovakia party, whose task could have been to paralyze the work of newly elected Prime Minister, Robert Fico’s government. The comparison’s between Viktor Orbán and Peter Pellegrini are lacking any substance though, they are very different politicians. But the sticking point for the German left is that relations between the two are positive and cordial, and both are calling for the end of the war in Ukraine through negotiations, rather than continuing to arm Ukraine.

The two German politicians’ astonishing reaction shows that on the one hand, Germany’s political mainstream is increasingly adopting an intolerant rhetoric towards smaller nations in Central Europe, and are not afraid to call for extreme punitive measures even against moderate, democratically elected governments in the region. Their remarks also show that political and financial blackmail that German politicians were directly instrumental in introducing within the European Union’s toolkit have little to nothing to do with real concerns about rule-of-law or the maintenance of democratic principles. Instead, they are of a purely political nature, a fact that creates an urgent challenge to the sovereignty of Europe’s new democracies that dare to diverge from Berlin’s or Brussel’s political dictate.

Few will be surprised that such remarks could originate from the German Greens, but the CDU’s increasing abandonment of conservative and national values, as well as that of the center-right political sphere in favor of radical left-wing activism will only benefit the increasingly popular AfD (polling at 20%) and newly emerging parties, who will quickly fill the void in Germany’s center, and center-right. Meanwhile, the hostile and authoritarian voice that has become synonymous with German political attitudes towards sovereign nations governed by Christian conservative governments, could again set European political discourse and security in a treacherous course.

Via Tagesspiegel; Featured Image: Facebook Peter Pellegrini