Swiss journal: EU despairs over Orbán’s pro-Russia actions

According to the Swiss journal, the Hungarian Prime Minister wants to take revenge with his actions for being publicly embarrassed by the French President in the debate over the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia.

The opinion article of Neue Zürcher Zeitung reports that Viktor Orbán’s government is blocking the introduction of a minimum corporate tax, opposing sanctions against Russia and blocking criticism of China. According to the Swiss newspaper, the Hungarian Prime Minister is going too far with his actions and his closeness to Putin is incomprehensible which creates a dispair in the European Union.

Emmanuel Macron and Viktor Orbán have never been particularly good friends. With Orbán’s rejection to implement the tax reform that France had pushed for at the EU level, relations between the two are likely to be more distant.

Read also: Orbán cabinet called on the EU to stop penalising member states

According to the opinion article in the Swiss journal, the Hungarian Prime Minister wanted revenge for being publicly embarrassed by the French President in the debate over the sixth package of EU sanctions against Russia.

Last Friday, at the meeting of the EU’s 27 finance ministers in Luxembourg, Orbán’s representative announced that they would reject the introduction of a global minimum tax on corporate profits – despite the fact that agreement on the issue had long seemed certain. After months of negotiations, Poland has also given up its opposition to a 15% minimum tax rate. The well-informed Politico news portal quotes several diplomats saying that the debate with Orbán revived the old debate about the principle of unanimity in the European Union. It is unacceptable for one country to hold the whole EU “hostage”, Manfred Weber, leader of the European People’s Party, recently said. He also pointed out that it was previously unthinkable for Poland to vote against Hungary, and vice versa, as both states defended each other – reported by Mandiner.

The Swiss journal also considers Orbán’s closeness to Putin incomprehensible. As it reports, this has resulted in creating a widening distance between his allies like the Visegrád Group and other former friends.

Since the Fukushima accident in March, fears about nuclear power plants on the continent have intensified across Europe. Most people fear that Europe could face a disaster similar to the one on the island of Japan. In Germany, the five oldest nuclear reactors have been temporarily shut down, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said in several forums that she was prepared to abandon nuclear power in the longer term.

Besides Germany, Switzerland has also announced that it would phase out nuclear power plants from its energy grid by 2034. The Swiss government submitted a proposal to the parliament on Wednesday, which will be debated by mid-June. The exact details were not disclosed, but it is expected that the timetable will be set according to the lifetime of the reactors. The oldest plant will be shut down in 2029, while the youngest will be shut down in 2034 – reported by Világgazdaság.

Source: mandiner.hu