Between Viktor Orban and the American ambassador to Hungary, the torch is burning | EUROtoday
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David Pressman denounces a well-oiled mechanism of sentimental repression: “If you speak out, you will probably become a target. You can be inundated with lies, make headlines, be subjected to online smear campaigns and become famous thanks to Megafon [un site en ligne de propagande, NDLR]. » A process which, in his words, renders victims “professionally radioactive, socially untouchable and even commercially unemployable.”
Asia's Revenge
David Pressman’s alarms are addressed to the entire West and respond to Viktor Orban’s annual speech at the Balvanyos Summer School in Tusvanyos, Romania. Last July, the strongman from Budapest rolled out an apocalyptic worldview for Washington. For the Hungarian, the shifting of the tectonic plates of the world order is comparable to the one that saw Western Europe emerge as the dominant power in the 15th century.e century.
“We are experiencing a change, a coming change, that has not been seen for 5 hundred years,” he said in Romania, outlining the contours of a post-Western world in which Asia would take its revenge. An analysis that is reminiscent of Oswald Spengler's theses in the aftermath of the First World War on the decline of the West. Hence the change of alliance prepared by Budapest under the slogan of increased “connectivity” with China.
For Viktor Orban, the stakes are existential. “If we wish to win, this Hungarian society will need to have a strong and resilient social construction,” he hammered home, detailing his vision of a Hungary that is anchored in its traditional values, its demographics and its Christian identity. A project that, according to him, involves rejecting the Western model, which he considers decadent and doomed to failure.
Orban's Trumpian Gamble
In this great upheaval that has been announced, the Hungarian leader is betting everything on a return of Donald Trump to the White House. “Trump ante portas,” he declared, paraphrasing the famous Latin expression used for “Hannibal is on the gates.” For the Hungarian leader, a Trump victory on November 5 would signal the end of the Ukrainian adventure and open the way to a geopolitical recomposition favorable to his interests.
The US ambassador underlines the danger of a Hungarian foreign policy that is too dependent on a single election result in the United States. Especially since this is not the first time that Viktor Orban has counted on a Trump victory. In 2020, Biden's victory caught him off guard and the EU then launched budgetary sanctions that hit the Hungarian economy, which is dependent on European funds, hard.
EPP looks (also) towards Meloni and Orban
The Prime Minister makes no secret of it: his goal is to transform the EU from within, relying on the rise of nationalist forces. His new group in the European Parliament, the Patriots, in alliance with Matteo Salvini, Marine Le Pen and the Dutchman Geert Wilders, is beginning to shake things up a little on certain societal texts, finding alliances of convenience with the EPP and Meloni's ECR sovereignists.
“The secret of greatness is to be able to serve something greater than oneself,” chants Viktor Orban, castigating what he sees as Western nihilism. A rhetoric that finds a growing echo within the European right, from Warsaw to Rome to Paris.
The time of reckoning is approaching
Faced with this ideological offensive, the West is struggling to articulate a firm response. The line to be taken with Budapest remains unclear and the attacks on Hungary's wallet via the withholding of European funds have had no impact on Hungary's categorical positions.
David Pressman concluded his speech with a call to action: “We owe it to our Hungarian ally – and to our Alliance [atlantique, NDLR] – to treat Hungary's words as such, and respond accordingly.” A transparent warning that the period of ” enterprise as regular » with Budapest is coming to an finish. It stays to be seen whether or not the Democrats will nonetheless be in energy on November 5. And in that case, it may price Viktor Orban…
https://www.lepoint.fr/monde/entre-viktor-orban-et-l-ambassadeur-americain-de-hongrie-le-torchon-brule-20-09-2024-2570734_24.php