Yesterday and today the European Council hosted a summit meeting in Brussels of the 28 leaders of the European Union. The meeting was characterized by Emmanuel Macron’s outburst against Central European countries over their refusal to accept any “refugees” that have been invited en masse into the EU by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the apparatchiks in Brussels (see this ANSAMed report on the summit from an Italian perspective).
The video below combines three excerpts from remarks by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán both before and after the summit. The first two clips are from yesterday, before the summit, and the third one was from earlier today, after the summit had concluded.
Note: When Mr. Orbán uses the pronoun “he” in the second clip, he is referring to Emmanuel “Toy Boy” Macron, the new president of France. Mr. Macron distinguished himself at his first EU summit by insisting that the Visegrad Four — Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary — must be forced to accept their quota of “refugees” as laid down by the European Union.
Many thanks to CrossWare for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript (times shown are from the three original clips):
| 0:34 | Now in the proposal intended to be adopted, it looks like | |
| 0:38 | a common decision — which we hope will not be an empty paper — | |
| 0:42 | but will be followed by real actions, | |
| 0:46 | will concentrate on the external dimension of the migrant issue. | |
| 0:50 | So it is not about how to handle what is already inside [the EU], but how to prevent | |
| 0:54 | from being brought here those that we do not want to have here. | |
| 0:58 | That is the meaning of the external dimension, and it is really easy to create | |
| 1:02 | agreement there, because the majority of the nations — not all of them, but a strong majority — | |
| 1:06 | agreed, that we must go to Libya; | |
| 1:10 | we must go to either the southern or the northern borders of Libya, and there | |
| 1:14 | we have to build refugee camps there and separate the real refugees from the economic migrants. | |
| 1:18 | We must apply our legal process and | |
| 1:22 | the anti-terror security filtering, and the only people who can enter the territory of the EU | |
| 1:26 | are those who have been processed through all that, and we know they do not endanger | |
| 1:30 | the safety of the European citizens. So we know who they are and what they want. | |
| 1:07 | Well, he is a “new boy”. This is his first time at a summit. | |
| 1:11 | We will look at him; we will listen to him; I am sure he has some ideas. | |
| 1:15 | But there are some veterans here. Some of them have shaken the yoke | |
| 1:19 | for more than a decade; he will find his way. His entrance was | |
| 1:23 | not too promising, because yesterday he thought the best sign of friendship | |
| 1:27 | was to kick at the Central European countries. This is not a custom here, | |
| 1:31 | but hopefully he will catch up soon. | |
| 0:00 | We can safely say that if there is ever going to be a European army, | |
| 0:04 | this summit will be remembered as the starting point, | |
| 0:08 | and written into the history books. | |
| 0:12 | Finally we accepted having | |
| 0:16 | a strengthened European defense. The meaning | |
| 0:20 | of that is to support the EU’s economic power with a military one. | |
| 0:28 | Earlier we were reluctant to | |
| 0:32 | phrase it so openly and define the | |
| 0:36 | political goals for European security. | |
| 0:40 | Now on this we had full agreement. |
“We will look at him; we will listen to him; I am sure he has some ideas.
1:15 But there are some veterans here. Some of them have shaken the yoke
1:19 for more than a decade; he will find his way. His entrance was
1:23 not too promising, because yesterday he thought the best sign of friendship
1:27 was to kick at the Central European countries. This is not a custom here,
1:31 but hopefully he will catch up soon.”
I am actually more than a little surprised here about Mr Orban’s naiveté. Emmanuel Macron – I believe the correct spelling is ‘Micron’ – will NEVER catch up. I greatly admire Mr Orban, but why he goes to such great lengths to give the benefit of the doubt to a blasé automaton is beyond me.
Orban is being sarcastic and condescending towards the new boy and a jolly good thing too. He (Macron) needs taking down a peg.
Macron’s statement is a hilarious putdown of Micron, and an illustration of what a true diplomatic maneuver can be.
Watch out his tone of voice… As a native Hungarian, I have to tell you he is burning him (Macron). He talks about him like a puppy who peed on the rug and now he (Orbán) rolled up the paper to teach him a lesson. It is hilarious.
The stiletto slides in with smile. What a man.
One aspect that worries me is any positive response whatsoever to the idea of an international EU military force. Orban is no babe, and surely knows that any force controlled by Brussels will sooner or later be used or threatened against countries resisting the diktats of the EU bureaucracy.
I’ve been thinking about this problem, too, and have come to a tentative conclusion.
Mr. Orban was talking up an EU army last year, before the election. At that point he was facing the possibility that Hillary would be elected, and would turn NATO into a mercenary force deployed at the behest of the highest bidder. Which would make it likely that in 2017 Hungary could end up the same way Serbia did in 1999, after some suitably concocted atrocity against “refugees” required the Western powers to act.
Hungary dodged that bullet when Trump was elected, but only temporarily. Trump is not living up to expectations, and his Secretary of State is still harassing Hungary over Soros U. The situation could revert to business as usual without any warning.
An EU army would act as a deterrent to such NATO shenanigans — but only if the Visegrad Four act as one to help weight the EU’s actions. If you add Denmark and Bulgaria to the Coalition of the Sensible, that’s quite a counterbalance. Not enought to outweigh Germany and France, but enough to slow them down and prevent any meaningful consensus against other member states.
Obviously, an EU army is just the lesser of two evils in such circumstances. Better than the drones and JDAMs from Momma NATO. But the Hungarian army on its own has no hope of stopping such interventions.
I disagree with one point:
– the Visegrad 4, Bulgaria and Denmark ( and Austria as far as I feel it now) are against Germany, Sweden,France,Italy,Greece,Holland, Norway.
Indeed , Trump is a failure.He is incapable to concentrate and focus and he feels almost alone.
Where is a Machiavelli when one needs it?
We need someone ruthless, but this is what we got.In any case in 4 years we have to have someone better or we have to sustain trump again.
Obama puts his dark criminal hand again in democratic party.That is really bad.
That is fantastic thinking, Baron. I never thought of the EU military as a counter to NATO. I simply thought of them as branches of the same tree.
So the thinking is, an EU military would have first precedence for handling internal European affairs. It would still be hostile to Hungary, but due to the influence of the coalition of the sensible, it would be entangled enough in internal policy disputes so as to not actually get around to taking any action. But, it would be blocking the path of NATO. Like putting the good soldier Schwejk as the lead of an attack unit.
Yes. Orban has been dealt a weak hand, and has to play it the best he can. If Soros and the NWO manage to convince the USA to bring NATO down on Hungary, it can’t possibly defend itself alone. So an EU army is the best Orban can hope for.
Second-best is a deal with the Russians. But I think he knows the price of that just as well as we do.
I think you guys just figured it out why the whole EU army comes from Orbán despite the dangers of Brussels influence. It is amazing to watch such diplomatic brilliance at work. Trump should take a course with Orbán.
sounds like NATO may soon be in the Thucydides trap with the potential army of the EU
My uncle is a Hungarian mathematician. I can hear his voice in my head deducing the strategy you’ve described for Hungary’s survival. An exercise in logic, like the statistical odds of a blue-haired, one-legged hooker getting on the train at the next tram stop in Buda. He did the calculations in his head and spoke aloud. Brilliant and vulgar–Hungarian traits both, and both endearing to me.