No one is keeping Hungary in the EU: Borrell responds to Orbán

Nobody is forcing Hungary to be a part of the European Union, Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said. This is how the EU’s top diplomat responded to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s words that the European Union is a “bad modern parody” of the USSR.

“Frankly, I do not see any similarity between the Soviet occupation of Budapest and what is happening in Berlaymont [the building in Brussels where the headquarters of the European Commission is located – ed.]. I didn’t see a single tank there. No one obliges Hungary to be a member of the EU,” Borrell said during the Europe and the world conference in Brussels.

At the same time, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania, Linas Linkevičius, hinted that under the rule of Viktor Orbán, modern Hungary should no longer be a member of the European Union.

“According to the EU treaties there is no clear mechanism for expelling a member state. No way to remove a state sponsoring terrorism from the UNSC. Those willing to lead probably should address the problem,” Linkevičius said.

During a speech on the occasion of the anniversary of the anti-Soviet revolution in Hungary in 1956, the Hungarian Prime Minister compared Hungary’s membership in the European Union to the Soviet occupation.

“Today, things pop up that remind us of the Soviet times. Yes, it happens that history repeats itself. … Fortunately, what once was tragedy is now a comedy at best. Fortunately, Brussels is not Moscow. Moscow was a tragedy. Brussels is just a bad contemporary parody,” Orbán said.

The European Union uses methods against the country that are reminiscent of the times of Soviet rule, the Prime Minister continued. “Lectures of comrades remain unchanged, only now it is called the conditional procedure. The party’s rebuke of Hungary is now called the Brussels rule of law procedure,” Orbán said.