Budapest – Brussels: Christmas Truce?

Abstract

The article analyzes the last stage of the confrontation between Budapest and Brussels, which this year marks at least 10 years. this means that out of Hungary’s 16 years of membership in the European Union, 10 years have not been easy – in periodically recurring disputes about its right to independence in political decision-making. The most tragic was the last two-thirds of the way, when the government of permanent FIDESZ leader Viktor Orban came to power in Hungary, having received two-thirds of the votes in parliament, which tried for the first time during the reform period to make comprehensive changes to the country’s fundamental documents. at least twice, the country was on the verge of applying article 7 of the Lisbon treaty, for which it was one of the first to vote in 2009. in 2020, immediately after the re-election of the European parliament, the discussion about Hungary’s inconsistency with the EU’s value area resumed, taking on a tragic framework towards the end of the year, when Hungary, together with Poland, was forced to pay attention to the problem of its certain «otherness» by vetoing the EU’s budget plans.