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A lot of the confusion surrounding Eastern European politics in the international fake news media is due to stupidity rather than malice. In particular, international leftists can’t understand Hungary’s relationship with the European Union. For example, take this dumb article from the Guardian crowing about how Viktor Orbán’s campaign to turn Hungarians against the E.U. is doomed to fail because most of the country supports E.U. membership. You dipshit, he’s not trying to turn anyone against the E.U.!
This is difficult for most non-Europeans to understand, but Orbán doesn’t want Hungary to leave the E.U., at least not yet. The other nationalist Visegrád countries also support the E.U.; for example, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently poured cold water on the idea of a “Polexit.” All of these countries are seeking to reform the European Union and return it to its original purpose: a customs union, free movement area, and mutual defense bloc. None of these countries will depart the E.U. unless they have no other choice.
And you know what? I’m fine with this.
I’m against the European Union and am a big supporter of Brexit, but I also understand why Hungary and other Eastern European countries want to either remain in the E.U. or join it (in the case of Ukraine and Serbia). The E.U. is an evil organization, one that is fostering the non-white invasion of Europe and gradually eroding the sovereignty of its member states, but from the perspective of Hungary and other Eastern European states, it is a necessary evil for the time being. Here’s why.
1. Hungary has benefited economically from E.U. integration.
Prior to joining the E.U., Hungary and the other Visegrád states were struggling economically, crippled by nearly fifty years of communism and having their valuable resources plundered by the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Joining the European Union gave Hungary access to Western European markets, allowing them to more easily sell goods internationally and gain foreign exchange. Integration into the Schengen Area made it easier for Hungarians to work abroad and for Western tourists to visit Hungary, injecting more capital into the motherland.
Not only that, the E.U.’s development funds have helped Eastern Europeans repair and replace their Cold War-era infrastructure. This is most obvious in Poland, which has newer highways, faster trains, and more high-tech airports than even the U.S.
All of this would be lost if Hungary were to depart the E.U. Eastern European countries that have tried to go it alone (or worse, seek integration with Russia) are all stagnant basket cases. Serbia is a decaying ruin full of bombed-out buildings. Ukraine is a corrupt dump where oligarchs are stealing everything that isn’t bolted down, then pulling the nails out of the stuff that is bolted down and stealing that too. Belarus, the closest thing to a non-E.U. success story in Eastern Europe, is still significantly poorer than even the poorest E.U. member state.
The only countries that can succeed economically outside of the E.U. either possess valuable resources or cultural links outside of Europe. For example, Britain has a drastically different legal system than continental Europe (common law, as opposed to European civil law), strong merchant and seafaring traditions, and a surfeit of former colonies such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia with whom it has deep linguistic and cultural ties. Switzerland has the banking sector to keep it afloat, while Norway has oil, and even those two countries have sought E.U. integration through joining the Schengen Area.
Most Hungarians have been touched by the horrors of communism, either because they grew up during the Cold War or their parents did. They have no desire to return to the days of bread lines, and they see integration into the European Union—the wealthy part of Europe—as a means to keep this from happening again. Orbán has done a superb job of deepening Hungary’s ties to the E.U. in ways that benefit Hungary, while avoiding dumb decisions such as taking in Muslim rapefugees or adopting the euro.
2. Hungary needs to join military alliances in order to defend itself.
This is something that reflexively anti-E.U. Americans don’t understand: countries in Eastern Europe are small. Hungary is roughly the same size as Indiana and has a population of less than ten million, slightly smaller than Michigan’s. The country has also been losing population for nearly forty years due to underwater fertility rates, though Orbán has helped partially reverse this in the past decade. Hungary is also landlocked and has flat, militarily indefensible borders, having lost its coastline and natural mountain frontiers following World War I.
The other Visegrád states have similar problems. The Czech Republic has a population slightly larger than Georgia’s but is smaller than South Carolina. Slovakia is only three-quarters as big as West Virginia and has a population smaller than Minnesota. Poland is by far the best off, but even it only has 38 million people—roughly the same as California—and is about the same size as Wyoming. Of these three countries, only Poland has a coastline and only Slovakia has remotely defensible borders, as it contains part of the Carpathian Mountains.
There’s no such thing as isolationism or going it alone in Eastern Europe, because there are bigger countries and alliances that are happy to divvy up the smaller ones like a roast. Hungary and other Eastern European countries have a long history of joining or being annexed to empires and alliances for self-defense, such as the Holy Roman Empire, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Triple Alliance, and the Warsaw Pact. Countries that have been able to maintain neutrality in Europe can only do so due to geographical happenstance; Switzerland and Norway are separated from their neighbors by mountains, while the U.K. and Iceland are protected by the ocean.
The European Union as an institution will eventually die, but Hungary’s need to secure its independence in the face of geography and demography will not. This is why Eastern European states have sought out membership in not only the E.U. but NATO: they need to form partnerships and alliances with other countries in order to stave off the ever-present fear of war. Serbia is an example of what countries like Hungary seek to avoid; the Serbs sidled up to Russia, then had their country forcibly dismembered by NATO during a time when the Russian bear was unable to protect them.
3. Hungarians view the European Union (and NATO) as a bulwark against Russian influence.
This goes hand-in-hand with the previous point. The simple reality is that for the past few centuries, there have been two dominant powers in Eastern Europe: the Germans and the Russians. When given a choice, Eastern Europeans will almost always side with the Germans (the E.U. in this instance), because they view the Russians as backwards Asian savages who enjoy raping, looting, and oppressing others. The only remotely pro-Russian peoples in Eastern Europe are the Serbs, the Belarusians, and (possibly) the Bulgarians.
It’s a view perfectly justified by history. During World War II, the Soviet Union “freed” Eastern Europe from the Nazis by having the Red Army rape every woman they came across (including in Hungary), then installing communist puppet governments in every “liberated” country. When World War II began in 1939, every Eastern European country (save for Poland) allied with Nazi Germany because they feared the Soviets more, and because Adolf Hitler was viewed as the leader of the future due to how quickly he pulled Germany out of the Great Depression.
Prior to World War I, the German- and Austrian-controlled parts of Eastern Europe were the most developed and prosperous, while the Russian-controlled parts of Poland and Ukraine were stagnant and poverty-ridden; Russia didn’t even abolish serfdom until 1861. Austria even gave considerable autonomy to ethnic minorities and encouraged Ukrainian nationalism as a counterweight to Polish nationalism. The legacy of these three empires is evident today: cities like Budapest and Lviv that were under Austrian or German administration have better infrastructure and architecture than Russian- or Turkish-administrated ones such as Belgrade or Kiev.
If Hungary (or any other Eastern European country) were to depart the E.U., it would immediately fall under Russian control. You might think this is a good thing, if you’ve been imbibing Duginist, alt-right propaganda about how Russia is a traditionalist country and Vladimir Putin is a rock-ribbed defender of the huwyte race. The reality is more complex.
Vladimir Putin is a civic nationalist and something of a cuck when it comes to Islam: Russia has a larger Muslim population than any other country in Europe, and Putin has authorized the construction of more mosques than at any other point in Russian history. Russia also has major problems with abortion, divorce, drug addiction, and other social maladies. This is part of the reason why Ukrainians have become so fervently anti-Russia and pro-E.U.: their country is whiter than Russia and they fear that Putin will flood them with Chechens, Dagestanis, and other non-white Muslims should they ever be reconquered.
Putin is an admirable leader who is doing the best he can under the circumstances, but he is like Klemens von Metternich: a skilled statesman presiding over a dying empire. He does not have whites’ or Eastern Europeans’ best interests at heart. Viktor Orbán and other Visegrád leaders understand this, which is why, even though they may do deals with Putin from time to time (as mentioned above, it behooves small Eastern European countries to stay on good terms with more powerful neighbors), they will ultimately choose the European Union over Russia.
To Hungarians, Poles, and other Eastern Europeans, E.U. integration represents not merely economic prosperity or military security, but their ascendancy into the ranks of proper European countries, away from the barbarism of the round-eyed Mongols we call Russians. Despite Angela Merkel’s power games, the E.U. still has a better track record than the Russians. An E.U. army hasn’t forcibly invaded Hungary and installed a puppet government, raping all the women and stealing all the resources on the way in. The E.U. hasn’t even been able to force Hungary to take in Muslim rapists! From Orbán’s perspective, why wouldn’t he stay in the E.U.? It’s like being able to drink all the booze you want and never get a hangover.
Until such time as the Visegrád states are able to form a power bloc on their own, they will need the European Union for military and economic reasons. It’s possible that the Three Seas Initiative will be able to serve as a bulwark against both the German E.U. and a resurgent Russia, but that day has not come yet. Indeed, so long as Hungary, Poland, and the other Visegrád nations resist diversity and poz, they may end up the new powers on the continent. At the moment, they have a better chance to affect positive change within the E.U. than outside of it.
Brussels delenda est.
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