Bloomberg: Hungary is in the EU only for money, Huxit possible?

Bloomberg wrote a long article about Hungary’s EU membership, the attitude of the Hungarians towards the European community and the government’s perspectives concerning current debates. They said Orbán regularly blames the EU, public support dwindles for the bloc, and Hungary is only a member because of the money. Since the money taps are closed, a Huxit is possible.

Bloomberg says that Hungary’s EU membership has a solid positive record regarding money. Budapest has received approximately EUR 100 million since Hungary joined the European Union in 2004. That is one of the highest levels of the EU’s per-capita allocations. But Hungary has recently become a test of the EU’s integrity, the article argues.

Bloomberg writes about polls showing the Hungarians are turning to the East. A February Eurobarometer recorded a 12 percent drop in popular support towards the EU. Interestingly, in February 2022, the backing of the EU was at 62 percent, a record since 2007. The change can mean that the government’s blame campaign against Brussels for the inflation, economic problems, and energy crisis works.

“It’s astonishing how effective Orbán has been at destroying Hungary’s pro-European attitude”, Dániel Hegedűs, a fellow at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin, told Bloomberg. A Huxit would be more symbolic than Brexit was, the news outlet argues. That is because Hungary was once a poster child of the EU’s post-Cold War expansion.

Huxit possible if everything continues this way

But Orbán’s debate with the EU is not because of ideological reasons. It is about money. Budget commissioner Johannes Hahn said they would unlock EUR 13 billion of the allocations. But that means another EUR 15 billion will remain frozen. Mr Hahn is to come to Hungary next week for further negotiations but believes a Huxit is unrealistic since Hungary benefits from its membership, and people know that.

Leaving the EU would not make sense because the Hungarian economy is fused with the EU economy, PM Orbán regularly said. But his minister of finances, Mihály Varga, said during the pandemic that Hungary should reconsider its membership if the country becomes a net contributor in 2030. Hegedűs believes that was a test balloon to monitor public opinion.

“Hungary never managed to internalise EU values, it was really about the money”, Ágnes Urbán, director of Mérték Media Monitor, a media watchdog in Budapest, added. “Now that the money is not flowing, add to that the propaganda and the two together have a powerful effect.”

Bloomberg believes that Orbán’s anti-EU rhetoric blaming Brussels for every hardship, including even the war in Ukraine, the closure of the money taps and a continuing change of the yet pro-EU public opinion may trigger a Huxit.

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