In a piece published on Project Syndicate, SPP Dean Wolfgang Reinicke and Senior Advisor Thorsten Benner call Europe to action to address Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s crackdown on civil liberties and political freedoms in Hungary. “The only way to stop him – and to protect the EU’s fundamental values, not to mention its self-respect – is to offer him a clear choice: act like a democratic statesman or become a pariah,” urge Reinicke and Benner.
Taking cues from some authoritarian regimes including Putin in Russia and Erdoğan in Turkey, Orbán aims to create an “illiberal state” on national foundations. Pushing back against European Union rights and values, Orbán and his decisions have elicited little response from key members of the European community like EU Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker and German Chancellor Angela Merkel. To further complicate matters, the European People’s Party (EPP), the center-right umbrella group to which Orbán’s Fidesz party belongs, reacted in a positive way, praising Orbán’s honesty in government and economic reforms.
Reinicke and Benner make four policy recommendations to rectify the situation with substantive action. First, the EPP should exclude Fidesz from the EPP European Parliament faction until Orbán changes course. Second, the EU should impose sanctions including withholding EU funds and suspending Hungary’s EU voting rights should Orbán continue on his current path. Third, the EU must create more effective mechanisms for monitoring the democratic health of its member countries. Lastly, European countries should follow Norway's example in increasing support for civil-society initiatives and independent media, which are under pressure from Orbán’s government.
As Hungary’s most important trading partner, Germany should rally the EU behind these tough and credible measures. Reinicke and Benner assert, “If Orbán were active in Germany, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution would likely be pursuing him for his anti-democratic activities. It is time for Germany to promote its constitutional principle of wehrhafte Demokratie, a democracy capable of defending itself, to the entire EU.”
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