The historic visit of JD Vance to Hungary (including to the Mathias Corvinus Collegium!) confirmed that hypocrisy is the native language of progressive elites. While the electoral campaign in Hungary has been an obscene and unprecedented festival of interference, the Euro-establishment chokes with indignation when the American Vice President comes to remind them that this election belongs to the Hungarians and to no one else. One must possess a truly steel-forged cynicism of the “anywhere” variety to express outrage when, after a month of campaigning, the only question the “somewhere” crowd is asking is whether they can still take part in free and fair elections in Europe.
After the scandalous precedents of electoral interference in Georgia, Poland, and Romania, we had been warned. And yet, once again, the autocratic impulse of Brussels and Co. has descended upon Hungary with the premium zeal reserved for its nemesis: Viktor Orbán, whose scalp they want, dead or alive. To achieve this, the actors in this sordid production have carefully orchestrated a choral strategy of formidable cynicism, following a familiar thread already used before: The “Putin card,” the hysterical invocation of Moscow’s hidden hand – the latest mutation of Godwin’s law, on steroids.
Starting with the Commission, which operates in the background but has nonetheless deployed from its DSA arsenal a “Rapid Response Mechanism” that fundamentally alters the rules of the online game. As we speak, a cartel of around forty representatives of “civil society” and “fact-checkers,” appointed (and very often funded) by the Berlaymont, in complete opacity, are telling Facebook and TikTok (the two most popular platforms in Hungary) which content should be removed. Given that, as revealed by the explosive report from the Republican group in Congress, “populist,” “anti-immigration,” or “anti-LGBTQ” opinions are to be banned, one can easily guess which candidate has seen their Facebook engagement melt away like snow in the sun. Not to mention that Ursula von der Leyen is also playing the card of barely veiled financial blackmail: Depending on how they vote, Hungarians are made to understand that the billions withheld from them will be returned… or not, as was the case in Poland.
Indeed, Donald Tusk knows something about this. Without changing a single law, and by violating a few others, he secured a windfall of €137 billion and obtained a form of immunity that allows him to trample the rule of law, while the Commission, in its Orwellian virtuosity, compels us to believe that he is merely “restoring” it. It was only natural that Tusk, in gratitude, would return the favour to his benefactors by inserting himself into the Hungarian campaign… though without quite matching the virtuosity of Zelensky, who has gone so far as to issue direct death threats against Orbán and to claim he will suffocate Hungary by shutting down the Druzhba pipeline until April 12, or beyond, if his pressure fails to produce the desired effect of electing “his” candidate.
But in this toxic swamp of dirty tricks and manipulation, the most striking innovation is probably the joint venture between regime-aligned media outlets (led by Politico and closely followed by Bloomberg and the Financial Times), USAID activists disguised as journalists, and European intelligence services. This triangle of operatives has devised a new system of circular espionage: Hacking the phones of member states, repackaging banal conversations as sensational scoops of high treason, and releasing them in dribs and drabs just days before an election. Effective? Not really. What can possibly be leaked from a Council of Ministers that is prepared upstream through dozens of meetings and surrounded by countless doorstep interviews? Nothing. What is confidential about a public EU position on minorities in Ukraine? Nothing. And what about peace negotiations? Everyone knows Orbán’s position on the matter, and JD Vance has in fact pointed out how constructive it is. The real scoop, by contrast, lies in placing a member state under surveillance and in catching a “journalist” on the payroll sharing confidential data with European intelligence services.
In short, a toxic campaign and shameless interventionism that cast the EU back to its worst instincts: Its authoritarian impulses and its contempt for democracy, precisely the excesses that JD Vance has been denouncing since his Munich speech. Add to this its belligerent obsession with Ukraine, its sabotage of any negotiation, and this pathological urge to immolate a continent on the altar of war, turning a project of peace into a war machine. The EU against Europe? That is where we are. And since the main bulwark against this destructive madness is Orbán’s Hungary, it must be removed, whatever it takes, including by preventing voters from choosing him freely. But as Vance reminded us, this election belongs to the Hungarians and to no one else, and there is a strong chance that on Sunday, they will not be intimidated. Even if Brussels and Co try to sabotage free and fair elections.
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