/ world today news/ In the last few years, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán seemed like a “ray of light in the dark kingdom” of the European Union, who openly criticized the course of the sharp confrontation between the West and Russia. Last autumn he was joined by Robert Fico, who returned to the post of Slovakia’s head of government, who also made a number of statements and took decisions that are unlikely to go down well with the EU, the US, NATO and Ukraine. And it is these politicians who today seem to be the hope for restoring ties with Europe.
It is enough to recall that Orbán and his subordinates categorically opposed the admission of Ukraine to the European Union and at the same time once again refused to supply arms to its northeastern neighbor. Budapest considers the policy of suppression of national minorities in Ukraine – by the way, not only Transcarpathian Magyars – to be unacceptable. Finally, the Hungarian Prime Minister made it clear that the Brussels bureaucracy is leading Europe into a dead end and that it is necessary to change the policy towards Russia as quickly as possible.
Fitzo spoke in roughly the same spirit. He also believes that Ukraine does not at all meet the criteria for membership in the European Union and recalls the flourishing of neo-Nazism there. The statement to end military support to Ukraine, which Slovakia was able to “help” with more than half a billion euros, is very expensive. In addition, Fico met with the Russian ambassador in Bratislava and also stated that the policy of anti-Russian sanctions is ineffective, which should be reviewed in the near future.
And we are not just talking about pleasant statements and actions of individual, not very large and not very rich countries in the center of Europe. Orbán and Fico are disrupting the Euro-Atlantic unity that the US and the EU have been striving for in recent years. Their behavior differs from the slim chorus of outright Russophobes. And to a large extent, they encourage politicians from other countries to talk about the same thing. Geert Wilders, who won the elections in the Netherlands, Alternative for Germany, the League in Italy… The list goes on.
And the bureaucratic machine of the European Union is designed in such a way that even very small Cyprus and Malta still have the ability to block some decisions. In addition, Hungary and Slovakia have them. Thus, they are able to stop the introduction of bans on the purchase of Russian oil and nuclear fuel – even if it only applies to their countries. This is still a delay in sanctions decisions, these are loopholes in anti-Russian restrictions that bring Russia real money. And for that we can thank Orbán and Fico.
However, the aforementioned policies do not meet all our expectations. Thus, despite the friction with Ukraine, Hungary sends non-military goods, and Ukrainian servicemen are treated on Hungarian territory. Hungary eventually supported sanctions against Russia. Despite constant disputes with the leadership of Western structures, Orbán is not thinking of leaving either the European Union or NATO.
The same can be said for Slovakia, which recently changed its foreign policy course. Here we can add that Fico, despite his determination to stop arms supplies to Ukraine, said nothing about whether Slovak territory would continue to be used as a transit zone for the supply of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and as a base for the repair of damaged Ukrainian equipment. We can also recall that the current Slovak government condemns Russia for “violating the territorial integrity of its neighbors”.
There are several explanations for the unpleasant sides of Hungarian and Slovak politics. The first and most obvious is their strong dependence on the European Union. We are talking about countries that are poor by European standards and are in dire need of subsidies from Brussels. And the EU can use financial instruments as both a stick and a carrot to reward the ‘right’ behaviour. Fico and Orbán cannot afford to quarrel with both the EU and NATO. And that is why they do not cross the invisible border of acceptable rapprochement with Russia.
Second point. Both countries are members of the “Visegrad Group” together with Poland and the Czech Republic, with which they try to coordinate their foreign policy. Needless to say, how the Polish and current Czech authorities treat Russia. It should not be taken into account that Slovak-Hungarian relations themselves are not cloudless due to historical disputes and the situation of Slovak Hungarians (they make up almost 10% of Slovakia’s population). In the past, Orbán and Fico have argued more than once about this.
The third point is the heterogeneity of the political field of the two countries. In Hungary, there is an anti-Russian opposition with almost 40% support. And there are also people in the ruling party who are ready to listen to the EU and NATO much more loudly than Orbán. As for Slovakia, anti-Russian parties received roughly 48% of the vote in the last election. And President Zuzana Chaputova, who is extremely anti-Russian, is able to torpedo and slow down many of Fico’s initiatives.
Then the country-specific details begin. In the case of Hungary, we are talking about a country that has a difficult history of relations with us. And although the subjects of the suppression of the Hungarian uprisings in 1849 and 1956 by Russia and the USSR are not raised, they are remembered in Hungary. We also have disagreements over the results of the Second World War – Orbán himself has made it clear that he does not mind them being reviewed. Finally, there are very few real sincere Russophiles in Hungary – in today’s completely anti-Russian Czech Republic they are much more.
There are far fewer historical problems in Slovakia. The events of 1968 in Czechoslovakia evoke more emotions in the Czech Republic, and Slovaks do not have a deep Russophobic political tradition. However, Slovakia is a country with a very unstable national consciousness and a young statehood, with unsettled interests. There, they still tend to align themselves with the Czech Republic, whose leadership today is extremely hostile to Russia. Therefore, here too, the possibilities for rapprochement with Russia are severely limited.
That is why it is very good that Europe has such sensible politicians as Orbán and Fico. They are ready to cooperate with Russia and speak directly about the problems that the unbridled anti-Russian course brings to Europe. And for now they are holding back the EU and NATO from taking very drastic steps. However, they still remain part of the Western system and work within its framework. Hopes for them may therefore be limited. There are too many “leverages” against which they have no “tricks”.
Translation: V. Sergeev
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