Hungary ‘unlikely’ to drift away from the EU

A left-liberal political analyst disagrees with opposition politicians who see Hungary as slowly but surely drifting away from the European Union.

In Népszava, political scientist Ákos Zsoldos takes the government’s stance against a two-speed Europe at face value but suspects that Hungary’s leaders would jump on the the Core Europe bandwagon if a two-speed Europe plan does become reality. He already detects similar attitudes in the Czech Republic, although its leaders have traditionally been relatively Eurosceptic, as well as in Slovakia whose Prime Minister has been Mr Orbán’s closest ally in opposing compulsory migrant quotas. The migration issue united the Visegrád Four, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, against the dominant European political élite over the past two years, but the last two countries have lately expressed their wish to join the Core Europe envisaged by President Macron of France, rather than finding themselves on the periphery. Zsoldos believes that despite the harsh rhetoric of the present, Hungary might well follow suite. If, as is widely expected, Mr Orbán scores a third consecutive electoral victory next spring with the opposition suffering a crushing defeat, he argues, the Hungarian Prime Minister might well perform a U turn, just as his Slovak counterpart has already.

Tags: EU, Visegrád 4