Huxit threat: EU’s plan to ‘punish Hungary’ sparks call for state to follow UK out of bloc

Nicola Sturgeon launches blistering Brexit attack

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Magyar Nemzet, a newspaper close to Victor Orban’s Hungarian government, sparked the discussion with an article titled “it’s time to talk about Huxit”. It was written by Tamas Fricz, a conservative academic with close links to Mr Orban’s Fidesz party.

In his article Mr Fricz accused the EU of “more and more imperial features”, and “behaving more and more condescendingly and arrogantly towards the Eastern and Central European states”.

He added: “The EU Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice and in parts the Council of Europe are determined to teach us a lesson.

“Even more: They want to punish us.”

There was fury across Western Europe earlier this year when a new Hungarian law, making it illegal to positively promote homosexuality in schools, came into effect.

Brussels withholding nearly €650 million (£557 million) from Hungary, which forms part of the EU’s Covid recovery fund.

The EU made the move in response to “violations of the rule of law” in Hungary.

According to German publication Tichys Einblick anger over this issue helped spark a debate about Hungary’s EU membership.

In his article Mr Fricz accused the EU of “more and more imperial features”, and “behaving more and more condescendingly and arrogantly towards the Eastern and Central European states”.

He added: “The EU Commission, the European Parliament, the European Court of Justice and in parts the Council of Europe are determined to teach us a lesson.

“Even more: They want to punish us.”

Mr Fricz argued there has been a fundamental divergence between Hungary, with its Christian conservative culture, and more liberal west European states.

He raged: “Our paths have diverged because the West – now consciously – has broken with Christian morality and the value system and is instead in the process of adopting a cosmopolitan, faceless world society based on self-enjoyment and self-destruction.

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“We Hungarians, Poles, the Eastern and Central Europeans, on the other hand, insist on maintaining our cultural and religious foundations that are thousands of years old.

“That’s our life. And that is more important than any other point of view.”

However, any Hungarian EU exit would be extremely controversial within the central European nation, which receives large fiscal transfers from Brussels each year.

Mr Orban has been accused of authoritarian behaviour, undermining independent Hungarian media and the courts system.

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Relations between Hungary and Brussels have been souring for several years, with major tensions emerging during the 2015-16 refugee crisis.

Hungary rejected an EU plan to redistribute Syrian refugees around the bloc, and is currently battling to prevent a similar proposal for their Afghan counterparts.

In March Orban’s Fidesz party left the European People’s Party, the main centre-right group in the European Parliament, before it was expelled.

Hungary has a close relationship with Poland, which also has a socially conservative government and has been accused of undermining the rule of law.

The two former communist states have thus far been able to block any radical EU action against either nation.

In his article Mr Fricz admits leaving the EU would be a dramatic move for Hungary.

He wrote: “From a political point of view, the fact that membership gives every Hungarian citizen the comfortable feeling of belonging to a democratic West based on an alliance of free nations should speak in favour of staying.

“This is what we have always longed for, and after forty years of communism we have finally achieved that longed-for goal.

“Belonging to one of the most progressive communities in the world is a special experience, and giving up after fifteen years would only be acceptable for very valid, grave reasons.”

Additional reporting by Monika Pallenberg.
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