The Duran Podcast
Isolated EU wants to punish Orban and Hungary
All right, Alexander, let's talk about Victor Orban and how the EU is looking to punish. Orban, punish him because he decided to engage in diplomacy and try to find a solution to the conflict in Ukraine. And that is why the European Union is actively, openly admitting to wanting to punish Hungary and punish Orban. And one of the ways that they believe they're going to, to hurt Hungary and to hurt Victor Orban is by scheduling an EU foreign minister's event in Brussels at the same time that Orban and Hungary, which has the presidency of the EU Council, is organizing an event connected to their role as president of the European Union in Budapest. So, it's kind of a protest scheduling conflict. So, no foreign ministers will be able to go to Budapest because they'll be at a formal Brussels initiated event. Childish, this is the stuff of three year olds, but that's who rules Europe at this moment, three year olds. - This is exactly correct. In fact, what they're proposing to do is that apparently Orban and his team wanted to have a foreign ministers meeting in Budapest to discuss ways forward. So, the EU is now going to organize an EU Council meeting for the same day, obliging everybody to attend this Council meeting in Brussels so that nobody can go to the meeting in Budapest. As you correctly say, it is childish, it is so petty, it is stupid, it isn't even stupid, it is ridiculous. And of course, the world sees it as ridiculous. Orban has just been to the three most important capitals in the world, he's been to Moscow, Beijing, he's been to Washington, he's met with Donald Trump who now looks very likely to be the next president of the United States after the assassination attempt on him. And the EU, instead of recognizing that Orban is regarded around the world as an international statesman is trying to pull him down, to humiliate him, to make him seem as if he doesn't speak for them. When all that is going to do is going to make the Russians, the Chinese, the global south, and perhaps after November, the Americans decide that the EU is a completely ridiculous and nonsensical institution and one which should not be taken seriously because they are turning against their own leading statesman, the only person in the EU who conducts foreign policy sensibly and rationally, and who bear in mind, under the EU's own rules, is supposed to be leading them at this time. It's a case of whom the gods destroy, they first make mad. Why does the EU not want to find a solution to a conflict that is destroying the EU? It's destroying Europe. Europe is, Ukraine is the big loser, obviously, but the other big loser in the project Ukraine is Europe. I don't think that's controversial to say, to recognize that Europe is the big loser. I think everybody recognizes that Europe is the big loser. Next to Ukraine, Europe is the big loser in this conflict. Why would they want to continue this conflict? Why are they so against a peaceful solution? Any solution to this conflict in order to save the union, at the end of the day, that's what it's about, saving the union. - Yeah, and you are asking me that question, the important thing to understand is that everybody outside the EU, including perhaps before long, the Americans are going to be asking that question as well. The Chinese, the Russians, the Indians, the Africans, the Latin Americans, the Americans as well, they're all going to be asking the EU that very same question. Why do you not want to end this war? You are losing this war, you are seeing Ukraine being destroyed. Tens of thousands of people are dying in Ukraine every day. Your economists are falling apart, your living standards are falling apart, and you will not negotiate, you will not talk, you want to see this war prolonged, you are behaving irrationally and even stupidly, and that is what more and more countries are going to be saying to the EU, and more and more countries are saying that now. We saw that at the Swiss summit meeting, the Peace Summit meeting that took place a few weeks ago, that the entire Global South basically either stayed away or they made comments critical of the EU's position and refused in the end to sign the final communique. So it's an absolutely vital, good question. Why do they refuse to do this? Well, there are three reasons. Firstly, in the case of Orban himself, the EU hates him. I mean, they have the same kind of issues with Orban that some people in the United States have against Donald Trump. They loathe Orban. They do not want a peace settlement in Ukraine in which Orban plays a leading role. So the very fact that he's trying to organise this makes them throw their rationality out of the window. They get to sabotage it simply because Orban wants it. It is stupid, but that's one side of it. The second is they absolutely loathe Vladimir Putin and Russia. And this isn't a war really about Ukraine at all. We've discussed this many times. It is a war effectively against the Russians. They can't bring themselves to admit that the Russians are in the driving seat, that they're winning the war, that the war is going to turn out. In Russia's favour, that any peace settlement is going to end up in Russia's favour, far better to keep the war going, hope that something will turn around and confound the Russians after all, that some miracle will happen. And even if that doesn't happen and the Russians win, keep the conflict going as long as possible in the hope that that was still somehow in the end, weaken the Russians to. They would rather lose than compromise because they can't bring themselves to compromise with an enemy that they have so demonised and monstered for so long. That's the second thing. And the third is that, of course, compromising in relation to the individual Western political leaders that we're talking about, the European political leaders that we are talking about, will expose them to questions by their own people. Why did you lead us into this conflict, which has ended up so badly for ourselves and for Europe and for our country when there were so many possibilities for peace open to you? And they don't want to ask, have those questions, ask of them as well. So for all of these reasons, they're setting their face against compromise. They want the war to go on. They would rather that Ukraine went down to defeat than compromise, and they certainly do not want to compromise peace, negotiate it and broke it by of all people, Victor or Ben. None of these are good reasons. None of them are rational reasons. But as it's absolutely clear now, reason and sense have taken, have no part of the way in which EU leaders make decisions anymore. - So what happens if Trump wins at the election of November 2024 and the only, it's not exaggeration either, the only leader in the European Union that is on speaking terms with Trump is Victor or Ben. The EU is screwed. - Yes. - Yes, yeah. - It is. - If we get that outcome in November, yeah. - Absolutely. And I mean, I'm not making any predictions, there's no quite no what is going to happen, but there is at least a possibility. I would say a strong possibility that Donald Trump will want to bring the war in Ukraine to an end, and he will reach out to the Russians and he will do so from a much stronger position that he did in 2017 when he was elected before, because he will have been re-elected, realistically prospects of impeaching him a third time. I would have thought we're fairly remote this time, especially if the Republicans do well in the congressional elections, which many people think they will. So it's plausible that Trump will reach out to the Russians to Putin, will come to an agreement with them, ending the conflict in Ukraine, at which point the Europeans will be left high and dry and looking ridiculous. - Well, you know, they slammed every door. I mean, these aren't politicians, these aren't diplomats because a good politician and a good diplomat never closes doors. They closed every door, they closed the doors to Russia, they closed the doors to Putin, they're closing the doors to China and to Xi Jinping, and they closed the doors to Trump. So what happens when all these doors are closed, but these are the doors that you need to go through in order to be part of the world. I mean, what do you do? You isolate yourself. That's exactly what you do. The only people you're left talking with are yourselves. There is no one else talking to you. The Indians go to Moscow, Putin goes to Beijing, Trump perhaps will be talking with Putin, the Europeans are left talking with each other. That's what's going to happen. Because as you absolutely correctly say, what the Europeans are doing violates the most fundamental principle of diplomacy, which is that you keep lines of contact open. - Yeah, and just a final thought, if things stay the same, God help us if you get a Biden or a Democrat White House and the war continues, it's still not to the benefit of Europe. - No. - No, because it's just a knowing situation. - It's not to the benefit. If Europe will be even further destroyed, even further isolated for most of the rest of the world and will be tied to a US administration, which even if reelected, nobody any longer has any real confidence in outside the Democratic Party and its followers in the United States, and which is itself becoming isolated in global affairs. So you would be in effect nailing your masks, your flag, you're nailing your flag to the master of the sinking ship. I mean, not a good look. - Yeah. The best thing that could happen to Europe and the European Union is a Trump victory in November. Sounds weird to say, and Trump actually keeping his, well, I don't know if he's actually said this, but he's hinted at cutting Europe loose. - Well, indeed. - That would be the best thing for Europe. - It would indeed be, maybe it'll knock some sense into the European Union and the European Union leaders. - It would indeed, and at that point, they might find that Viktor Alban, this monster demon, Lucifer, Dark Angel, whatever. Well, what they call him actually is an absolutely indispensable bridge, an essential bridge that they have to rely on, because at least he has kept the lines of communication open, which none of the European, other European leaders have done. So at that point, they might find that the fact that he's done what he has done is in their own interests, that whether they'll be able to swallow that and would be prepared to talk to Orban at that point is another matter. - No, they won't, because you can just look at the picks for the new EU top jobs. Kaya Palace and Ursula's second term, and you understand that they're just gonna double down. - Yes. - On all the mistakes. Yeah. - Okay, we will leave it there. Thederan.locals.com. We are on Rumbola to see pitch with Telegram RockFit and Twitter X and go to the Deran Shop. Pick up some limited edition merch. The link is in the description box down below. Take care. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC PLAYING]