Viktor Orbán is once again enemy number one in Brussels. This time, it’s because he has promised to halt EU aid to Ukraine until oil starts flowing again through a pipeline controlled by Ukraine. Is this “big bad Orbán” spoiling the EU’s party, or a principled stand for Hungary’s interests at a critical time?
Jacob Reynolds, Agnieszka Kolek, and Philipp Siegert talk about Orban's decision on Ukraine aid and the reason behind it, the implications of a US Supreme Court decision on tariffs, and a cynical plan to staff Europe's depleted armies with migrants.
The Energy Standoff: Hungary’s refusal to sign off on the latest Ukraine aid package isn't a random act of defiance; it’s a response to halt of vital oil that should be flowing through the the Druzhba pipeline. But the wider context is that the Commission uses "emergency powers" to bypass national consent, and they ignore the Russian gas still pouring into French and Belgian ports. It is a shameless centralisation of power and blatant double standard.
The Trade Vacuum: A landmark US Supreme Court ruling has invalidated some of the legal basis for Trump’s tariffs. While some in the European Parliament propose ripping up the EU-US trade deal, the Commission clearly has no desire to. What’s underling this? The structural weakness of Europe and its dependency on America for Ukraine weapons.
The Mercenary Solution: Faced with a recruitment crisis, the elite have proposed a chillingly transactional fix: offering citizenship to migrants in exchange for military service. Having hollowed out the meaning of the nation-state, the establishment now seeks to outsource its defence to those with no historical stake in the land, treating the ultimate duty of a citizen like a corporate contract.
