It’s doublespeak. Orbán is not interested in making Europe or the EU any stronger, just in extracting as much as he can from it. He only cares about Hungary.
However, it is a signal (we cannot really talk of dog whistle here, it’s rather obvious) to other far-right parties with similar nationalist agenda that he’s on their side. So a better reading might be “make [individual countries in] Europe great again”.
> The EU is a behemoth that absolutely steamrolls smaller countries into submission
Yet curiously Hungary has been allowed to steep down into authoritarianism, and none of Orban's excesses like media or judicial overreaches have been been overiden through submission.
> That sounds fine for the people of Hungary whom he represents. What should he do, roll over and take it from Germany? The EU is a behemoth that absolutely steamrolls smaller countries into submission. But the squeaky wheel gets greased.
Gemany pays shitloads of money into the EU so that places like hungary can benefit. If they feel that's being "steamrolled" into accepting things like the contracts they fucking signed they can fuck back off into irrelevance. As a German tax payer i'd appreciate that very much.
As a German tax payer too, i appreciate very much that Orban does not roll over and take blackmailing* from Brussels regarding the migration crisis and what Hungary will allow regarding its remaining sovereignty.
* "Hungary has been ordered to pay a €200m (£169m) fine for its refusal to uphold the rights of asylum seekers"
Germany as well as other countries should be thankful that Hungary actually built border protections, something you will never see from established centrist parties and bureaucrats.
PS: Money, Power(, Football) - will always be of interest, be it for the Commies or the Righties. Corruption on both sides, it is just a human thing.
Yeah another uneducated take from a new account who'd thought. Hungary is paying thos fines because they currently, actively and willingly violate human right laws.[1] Not because they "build border protections". Even if you want a significantly more strict immigration and asylum law, human rights must be protected.
But that's always the trick of the fascists, First violate the rights of the undesired so you can get people used to it, then violate the rights of the rest.
> Even if you want a significantly more strict immigration and asylum law, human rights must be protected.
Says who? As a Hungarian I never voted for these “human rights” that allows third worlders to waltz through our borders and into our backyards.
If they don’t like being detained at the border they can pound sand and go back to where they came from. We never invited them and they went through several safe countries to get here.
I wonder how much migration would it take for the overwhelming majority to realize that these “ideals” are utterly ridiculous and go against the very idea of statehood. 10 million economic migrants? 50mil? maybe a hundred?
However, it is a signal (we cannot really talk of dog whistle here, it’s rather obvious) to other far-right parties with similar nationalist agenda that he’s on their side. So a better reading might be “make [individual countries in] Europe great again”.