The government maintains refusal to accept ban on oil and gas imports from Russia
May 24th, 2022As the government rejects a proposed ban on imported Russian oil – unless the full cost is reimbursed by the European Union, a right-wing analyst praises that position as one rooted in democracy.
The European Commission is planning to phase out oil imports from Russia by the end of the year, whilst offering significant (but for the moment unspecified) concessions to Slovakia and Hungary. The Hungarian government argues that transitioning from Urals to Brent crude will take much time and significant investment at Hungarian-owned refineries.
In his blog on 888.hu, Gábor G. Fodor calls on the government to stick to its position, because that is what the population wants. Governments, he writes, have a moral duty to represent the interests of their voters. He is certain that those interests would suffer a huge blow if Russian oil and gas supplies were cut off. For the moment, it is only about phasing out crude oil, but even that could leave Hungarians without fuel, he warns. In Fodor’s view, sanctions can and in fact, have always been circumvented and thus do more harm to those who introduce them than to Russia, in this case. In other words, they cannot be expected to promote peace, but rather serve to make leaders feel they have done something to punish the aggressor. He understands that ‘moral urge’ – but suggests that logic should not be abandoned for the sake of morality.