European Parliament votes to punish Hungary

Adisa

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The EU parliament has today voted a Motion of Censure against Hungary. I for one welcome this move. Anyone that does not know what Orban has been up to this past few years needs to read up on him.
More importantly, there have been calls that this will antagonise the people of Hungary. There is this view that if you're nice to cnuts on the right, they will stop being cnuts. This is bollocks and it's time the left get that fact.
The EU should not be scared to expel countries that show they do not and do not want to share the same values and countries that threaten the bloc economically. The EU should not be scared of becoming smaller. My only regret is that the Tory MEPs voted with Hungary. I have a colleague from Hungary and a lot of how she describes the way the government is behaving towards the legal system, political opponents and of most concern, minorities and immigrants is scary for any democracy.
 

JPRouve

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The good thing is that it's the EU parliament that did it, at least people won't say that they are unelected.
 

marktan

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Whilst the motive behind the actions against Hungary and Poland mean well, I can't help but feel the longer-term ramifications of it will be to only make more people in those countries anti-EU, and continue to aid the rise of populist right parties.

The way it'll come across to the masses, especially the 50% of the voters of Hungary who voted for Orban, is that the EU is trying to rule Hungary from the outside.

Will it actually mean anything though?. Orban was elected on anti-immigration stance, he's unlikely to change his policies. Will the EU take actual action against Hungary? That's pretty unlikely too.
 

FlawlessThaw

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Whilst the motive behind the actions against Hungary and Poland mean well, I can't help but feel the longer-term ramifications of it will be to only make more people in those countries anti-EU, and continue to aid the rise of populist right parties.
Given the way Brexit is happening I doubt Hungary or Poland will be demanding an exit from the EU any time soon. @Adisa is right, placating the far right doesn't stop them from being cnuts.
 

soap

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Given the way Brexit is happening I doubt Hungary or Poland will be demanding an exit from the EU any time soon.
If it comes down to being told to accept refugee quotas or leave I'm pretty sure both of those countries will leave, possibly the other V4 countries too (Slovakia and Czech Rep). I saw polls about a year ago suggesting that around 70% of the Polish people would rather leave the EU than accept third world migrants and I'd imagine it's much the same in Hungary.

Most likely what we'll see is some token sanctions applied I guess.
 

FlawlessThaw

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If it comes down to being told to accept refugee quotas or leave I'm pretty sure both of those countries will leave, possibly the other V4 countries too (Slovakia and Czech Rep). I saw polls about a year ago suggesting that around 70% of the Polish people would rather leave the EU than accept third world migrants and I'd imagine it's much the same in Hungary.

Most likely what we'll see is some token sanctions applied I guess.
Even then I’m not convinced, depending on how a no deal Brexit goes. It
 

JPRouve

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If it comes down to being told to accept refugee quotas or leave I'm pretty sure both of those countries will leave, possibly the other V4 countries too (Slovakia and Czech Rep). I saw polls about a year ago suggesting that around 70% of the Polish people would rather leave the EU than accept third world migrants and I'd imagine it's much the same in Hungary.

Most likely what we'll see is some token sanctions applied I guess.
The bothering part with this is that it totally ignores the main reasons behind the "punishment", which are linked to hungarians freedom, access to democracy and treatment of minorities , from what I understand these grievances are valid and should be the topic of our discussions instead of "taking refugees".
 

Adisa

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The "taking refugees" is a cover for Orban. The deal about refugees was optional. This has nothing to do with that.
 

soap

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I know there are other issues surrounding Orban but I also don't find it hard to believe that his attitude to the migrant crisis is a driving force behind this, even if it's ostensibly separate.

If that's not the case the migrant issue still isn't going away, and I think Hungary and Poland would rather leave than play ball. I doubt the EU care enough about that to risk losing a member (let alone 2 or 3) but it's not out of the question even if Brexit goes tits up. Can't see many politicians looking at Theresa May and saying "well if SHE can't manage it what hope do we have?!" :lol:
 
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