How Orbán abuses EU and what conclusions Brussels should draw

The European Union’s central challenge is to defend its members against external aggression, whether from the US or Russia, and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s regime has long frustrated this effort.

Now there is a chance to put an end to this.

Hungary’s upcoming general election will have far-reaching implications both for Hungary and the European Union. Even if Orbán is defeated in this year's election, EU leaders must take the right lessons from his 16 years of illiberal rule.

Read more about what conclusions other European leaders should draw from this experience in the column by Adam Bence Balazs of the University of Passau (Germany): Orbán’s defeat is not enough: why the struggle with Hungary should force EU to change.

According to the author, barring meaningful reforms, the bloc cannot hope to build resilience against new international threats.

"By hijacking the perks of EU membership and turning them into pressure points that anti-European forces have exploited, Orbán has created a playbook that others could follow in the future," Balázs writes.

According to him, Orbán’s capture and misuse of EU funds is well documented. Moreover, Orbán has abused the veto right that comes with EU membership. 

The researcher of the University of Passau also points to other structural features of the EU have also benefited Orbán.

For example, free mobility for people within the EU. While a brain drain poses serious challenges for any country over the long term, emigration has served Orbán’s interests by allowing those who might otherwise challenge him simply to seek opportunities elsewhere.

Because the EU is so committed to equality between member states, it shines a spotlight even on small and medium-size countries. Accordingly, Orbán enjoys a degree of visibility far beyond what a Serbian or North Macedonian leader could ever achieve. But the upshot is that the EU has unwillingly amplified Orbán’s illiberal model, which now attracts right-wing sympathizers from around the world.

For example, Orbán and other anti-liberals have found a common cause in opposing immigration. Orbán played a decisive role in turning the 2015 influx of asylum-seekers into a full-blown crisis for the EU.

Orbán has clearly exposed the weak points of EU institutions, the author stresses.

"The Hungarian precedent has clarified what European resilience requires: not symbolic postwar unity, but the political capacity to confront those who convert institutional and social weaknesses – at home and abroad – into a source of power. Such limited, and ultimately self-defeating, leverage should not intimidate a Union that aspires to act geopolitically," the University of Passau researcher concludes.