Orbán in the European Parliament: just one adult in the room

If anyone wanted to witness a chemically-pure concentration of all the ailments afflicting the Western political class, they could not have been better served than by the debate, as disheartening as it was revealing, that followed Viktor Orbán’s speech at the European Parliament. The Hungarian Prime Minister spoke as a head of government, presenting the priorities of his presidency. In response, the esteemed members of this assembly did not hesitate to display their repertoire of childish sentimentality, virtue signaling, pathological messianism, and magical thinking. Here is a brief overview. 

It is customary for the head of government holding the rotating EU presidency to explain his or her programme in Strasbourg, followed by an exchange with the European Commission and elected European officials. Orbán took the task seriously and, going beyond the usual clichés without being polemical, painted a candid, yet polite, picture of a Europe he believes is adrift and suggested several ways to remedy it.

Competitiveness, migration, enlargement, and geopolitics were among the well-argued points in his presentation, along with a few blunt and lucid observations, such as the undeniable link between illegal migration and the rise in anti-Semitism, homophobia, and misogyny. It was an opportunity for parliament and the commission to bury the hatchet and engage in a real substantive debate – but one that quickly devolved into collective hysteria, mantra recitations, and Instagram politics. 

To begin, immediately after Orbán’s speech, the benches of the European Left broke into a rendition of Bella Ciao, an Italian anti-fascist song, prompting the visibly-embarrassed president of the parliament literally to remind them that this debate was not the Eurovision Festival. Prophetic words, given how the MEPs lived up to their mediocre reputation as out-of-touch clown mandarins.

Special mention goes to Valérie Hayer and Raphael Glucksmann, who, in their usual mawkish style, berated Orbán, almost suggesting they go save the Hungarian people from the terrible clutches of the leader the  Hungarians have been re-electing since 2010. The spokesperson for the Greens, the very eccentric and rainbow-clad Terry Reintke, painted an apocalyptic and delusional picture of Hungary, especially for sexual minorities, while forgetting that in Budapest, unlike in Germany, Austria, or Norway, it’s actually rather pleasant to protest without threats from Islamists. This was followed by a litany of platitudes and slogans about the rule of law, corruption, press freedom and, above all, the eternal “reductio ad Putinum,” which has become the sole and meager intellectual defence to stifle any debate on the war in Ukraine or beyond.

The only small improvement this time was that no one dared call Orbán anti-Semitic. Hungary, after all, is the only European country that still dares to host matches for the Israeli football team and one of the few places where it is possible to walk down the street wearing a kippah —such accusations would have been somewhat indecent. 

A childish and disheartening spectacle, but ultimately quite banal. On the other hand, it was surprising to see Commission President Ursula von der Leyen follow suit, trampling all over her institutional role to indulge in a political and mendacious attack. Hungary is the only country sourcing fossil fuel from Russia? False. France, Spain, and Belgium are the main importers of Russian liquefied gas. Is Hungary welcoming Russian workers with open arms? Yes, 7,000 Russians live in Hungary, compared to the 300,000 living in Germany, Orbán retorted, reminding her of the exponential increase in transactions between European companies and Russia through Turkey, India, and Central Asia. Hungary is autocratic? Except that a government with a two-thirds majority has never imposed a cordon sanitaire against any party, as is the case in Strasbourg against the Patriots group. And above all, there was no reaction to Orbán’s speech on the priorities of his presidency, which he had come to present in good faith. 

Von der Leyen was not pleased, as the Hungarian Prime Minister, with a sense for quick-wittedness, sent her back against the ropes. He seized the opportunity to expose the unbearable hypocrisy of European leaders – their messianism, the arrogance of those blinded by their own righteousness, their inability to face reality, and their sectarian view of Europe as a sacred totem, against which any criticism becomes blasphemy.

In short, European leaders show the faults one would attribute to a capricious child, so indicative of the “woke state of mind” among the elites, which is plunging Europe into a despairing morass of incompetence. Alone against all, armed with democratic legitimacy and clarity of vision, the Hungarian dominated the European Parliament. And in this temple of political spectacle and exaggerated posturing, he demonstrated, over the course of three hours, that among the spoiled children, there was only one adult in the room.