Orbán goes full fascist

[Nefertiti2]

rule by decree.
until further notice

[Nefertiti2]

[URL]https://twitter.com/balazscseko/status/1244612142831198209?s=21[/URL]

[Diable Rouge]

I give it a month until Kaczynski tries similar.

[ursus arctos]

They have to force through the elections first, methinks.

[Tactical Genius]

[URL]https://twitter.com/balazscseko/status/1244612142831198209?s=21[/URL]

Is this 1933 Germany?

[Sporting]

Do we think the EU will act? They have other priorities right now...

[ad hoc]

(This tweet thread is, in my opinion, overly optimistic)

https://twitter.com/garvanwalshe/status/1244651327969529862

[ursus arctos]

He has called the EU's bluff so many times already. I'm afraid that I share ad hoc's pessimism (which makes me even more pessimistic about the medium term for Poland).

[San Bernardhinault]

I fear that if the EU doesn't act (after the covid-crisis subsides), then the EU is done for. And I fear that the EU won't act.

[Nefertiti2]

What do you think of this thread as hoc?
not only do I find the analysis more convincing, I see very troubling parallels between Orbán Johnson and the Press.

[URL]https://twitter.com/bedeabl/status/1244727512824979456?s=21[/URL]

[Nefertiti2]

https://twitter.com/n_roettgen/status/1244921615877648384?s=20

[Nefertiti2]

[URL]https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/1247158646242451456?s=21[/URL]

[Nefertiti2]

[URL]https://twitter.com/b_judah/status/1247159396158840832?s=21[/URL]

[ursus arctos]

I should know the answer to this, but admit that I don't.

Can the EU adopt sanctions by qualified majority?

The assumption that PiS Poland would veto any attempt to expel Hungary (a vote that requires unanimity) is widely considered to be the reason that ideal has never gotten off the ground.

[ad hoc]

I think they changed the rules last year to allow withholding of funds by qualified majority

[ursus arctos]

I believe that is right with regard to grants, but don't know about sanctions (which would hit Orban and his cronies more directly)

[ad hoc]

I imagine sanctions in this case would be the withholding of EU budgeted funds aimed at Hungary. Does the German text identify other types of sanctions?

[ursus arctos]

It speaks of "financial consequences", which could be either or both.

Formal sanctions require unanimity.

https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/p...iew-procedure/

[Ginger Yellow]

That's sanctions in a traditional international relations sense (ie barring of trade, capital controls). I'm not sure, but I'd be a little surprised if intra-EU sanctions of that sort were possible. My understanding is that Article 7 sanctions require unanimity to decide if they are going to happen, but only qualified majority for the modality. Unfortunately we haven't passed the first hurdle yet. For other stuff, it will depend on the exact mechanism in question, but eg redirecting cohesion funds or EIB funding wouldn't need unanimity (indeed, the latter wouldn't need a vote if it were done under the table).

[ursus arctos]

I hadn't previously thought of this, but it appears that some of the RDC individuals on the EU Sanctions List (also) have Belgian citizenship.

[delicatemoth]

Detailed and distressing article on Orban's new law that will end gender recognition in Hungary. Going to post it on the trans thread too.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstru...y-trans-rights

[Nefertiti2]

thanks for flagging that up dm.
he's taking advantage of special powers to drive the fascist agenda forwards in all sorts of ways

https://twitter.com/ParkerMolloy/status/1251544931123986433?s=20

And the powers for data capture and intervention he has now handed himself is really terrifying.

[Sporting]

And meanwhile the EU does precisely what?

[Nefertiti2]

the fascist and antisemite threads come together as they usually do

https://twitter.com/liliebayer/status/1253577326899707904?s=20

[Nefertiti2]

increasing antisemitism in Hungary and use of Covid19 to increase the power of the state

we can see that the Orbán government is slowly chipping away at the norms of liberal democracy, attempting to quash opposition, and using this crisis in the way that the Nazis used the Reichstag fire, that is, to criminalise critics, or at least to attempt to do so. And whilst it might be harsh to compare the EU’s failure of nerve when faced with Hungary’s deviation from its rules to appeasement, in fact both rest(ed) on an inability to face up to the true nature of the regimes in question.