Hungarian Prime Minister Orban has been cursing the EU sanctions against Russia for months. The European elite would have decided without asking the citizens, he rumbles. Therefore there should be a referendum in Hungary.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has announced a referendum on the European Union’s (EU) sanctions on Russia. “The sanctions were not decided democratically, but decided by Brussels bureaucrats and European elites,” he said in the Budapest parliament. “Although Europe’s citizens are paying the price, they have not been asked,” he added.
According to Orban, the EU sanctions against Russia “backfired” and drove up energy prices. “We can say with certainty that sanctions have made the people of Europe poorer, while Russia has not collapsed,” he said. “The whole of Europe is waiting for an answer from Brussels on how long we will continue like this.” It is also time to discuss sanctions with the US.
Orban has been railing against the sanctions the EU imposed on Russia after it invaded Ukraine for months. However: in the Council of EU states, which must take these decisions unanimously, Hungary always voted for the respective sanctions packages. The Hungarian had agreed to an exception to the oil embargo against Russia that came into effect in December.
As part of a “national consultation”, the Hungarian government will now be “the first in Europe to ask people about the sanctions against Russia,” said Orban. The right-wing populist repeatedly has “national consultations” carried out to have his policies confirmed, for example in connection with restrictions on the right to asylum. Questionnaires are sent to citizens that contain leading questions and make the government’s positions appear correct. The results of these surveys have no legally binding consequences.
