THE WIZARD, THE VIRUS AND A POT OF GOLD. Viktor Orban and the future of European solidarity
THE WIZARD, THE VIRUS AND A POT OF GOLD. Viktor Orban and the future of European solidarity

Author(s): Author Not Specified
Subject(s): International relations/trade, EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Asylum, Refugees, Migration as Policy-fields
Published by: ESI – European Stability Initiative
Keywords: Corona Crisis; Viktor Orbán; Péter Szijjarto; inner-EU solidarity; refugees;
Summary/Abstract: A few days ago, on 30 March, two things happened that put a spotlight on a deep crisis of European solidarity. That day the EU adopted a Coronavirus Response Investment Initiative (CRII) with the goal of mobilising € 37 billion to overcome challenges related to the corona crisis and to save lives. And yet, while Italy was allocated CRII funding equivalent to 0.1 percent of its GDP, and Spain 0.3 percent, Hungary received an astonishing 3.9 percent of its GDP in CRII funding. Italy received € 2.3 billion but Hungary, with one sixth its population, € 5.6 billion. Italy was then the country most affected by the coronavirus, with more than 9,100 deaths on 27 March. Hungary had 10. The European Commission admitted that this was not “an optimal allocation.” It was, however, a perfect deal for Viktor Orban. 30 March 2020 was a dark day in the history of EU assistance. It highlighted the fact that this system of solidarity had gone fundamentally wrong. Europeans now need to find better ways to defend the values enshrined in their treaties, not with pious words and empty threats, but in the language of power and money that politicians like Orban will understand. European democracies must learn lessons from the often-invoked Marshall plan: assistance without strategy, funding without values, will not produce lasting positive impact. What the EU needs today is a strategy that simultaneously addresses both threats to economic cohesion and to democracy, in a way that strengthens both.

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