inews.co.uk <https://inews.co.uk/news/world/eu-braces-for-in-fighting-after-putin-congratulates-orban-and-vucic-on-election-victories-1556164?ITO=newsnow>
EU braces for in-fighting after Putin congratulates Orban and Vucic on election victories By Leo Cendrowicz 4-5 minutes _____ The European Union is bracing for renewed tensions with two of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most reliable allies on the continent, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban <https://inews.co.uk/news/world/hungary-election-viktor-orban-criticises-zelensky-after-winning-1555282?ico=in-line_link> and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, after both won easy election victories last night. Officials in Brussels and other EU capitals had hoped for electoral upsets in both countries, as they sought to reset relations and secure a more united front against Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, but the scale of their wins suggest Hungary and Serbia could become even more intransigent. Mr Orban won a fourth consecutive term as Hungary’s Prime Minister <https://inews.co.uk/topic/hungary?ico=in-line_link> after his ruling Fidesz Party clinched another two-thirds majority that would enable constitutional changes. He then goaded his critics in his election night speech. “We’ve won a victory so big, you can certainly see it from Brussels,” he said. The swipe follows a series of clashes with the EU over the independence of courts and the media as well as migration, NGOs and LGBT rights. The right-wing populist also irks the EU for openly admiring Mr Putin and refusing to send weapons to Ukraine, despite officially condemning Russia’s invasion and accepting Ukrainian refugees. A self-styled illiberal democrat <https://inews.co.uk/news/world/hungary-election-viktor-orban-criticises-zelensky-after-winning-1555282?ico=in-line_link> , Mr Orban also snapped at Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky. “We never had so many opponents,” he said as he reeled off a list comprising of “Brussels bureaucrats, the international media, and the Ukrainian president too.” Mr Putin himself congratulated Mr Orban, as did key hard-right politicians in Europe like Italian Northern League leader Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen and Britain’s Nigel Farage. More from World Mr Orban’s win sets up a collision course with Brussels over billions of euros in EU pandemic relief money, currently frozen over Hungary’s democratic backsliding. “The scale of the win will embolden Orban, and we should expect him to drift further and further towards dictatorship,” said one EU official. Earlier this year, Europe’s top court allowed the EU to block funding to Hungary and Poland for breaching democratic rights. However, the Ukraine war is redrawing the dynamics: Warsaw is now distancing itself from Budapest, leaving Mr Orban to battle Brussels alone. “The war in Ukraine has cracked the foundations of the long-standing Polish-Hungarian political friendship,” says Wojciech Przybylski Europe’s Futures Fellow at the Institute of Human Sciences <https://www.iwm.at/> in Vienna. Mr Orban did not clinch a total victory at the polls. A controversial referendum aimed at curbing school teaching of LGBTQ issues was also on the ballot but was declared invalid as less than the required half of Hungary’s registered voters voted. Meanwhile, in Serbia, Mr Vucic won nearly 60 per cent of the votes, some 40 points ahead of his nearest challenger, while his populist Serbian Progressive Party also had a comfortable victory. Although Serbia is not an EU member, it applied to join the bloc 2009, and has been in accession talks for years – but Brussels has made clear it expects would-be members to follow its line on foreign policy, and sanctions in particular. Belgrade has so far not aligned itself with any of the EU sanctions against Russia, even though it has condemned Putin’s invasion of Ukraine in a UN resolution. Like Mr Orban, Mr Vucic has been accused of increasingly autocratic rule, and the talks to join the EU have ground to a near halt. Mr Vucic – who also earned congratulations from Mr Putin for his “independent foreign policies” – has pandered to the Russian president on energy, and often lambasts the West, which bombed Belgrade in the Yugoslav wars in 1999. -- http:www.antic.org --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "SERBIAN NEWS NETWORK" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/senet/036d01d848be%2498d21300%24ca763900%24%40gmail.com.
