Free Republic

The European Union executive will recommend suspending billions of euros earmarked for Hungary over corruption woes, two officials told Reuters on Wednesday, in what would be the first such move against Prime Minister Viktor Orban. But her executive was expected to recommend on Sunday the suspension of up to 70% of 22.5 billion euros ($22.44 billion)worth of cohesion funds earmarked for Hungary from the EU's 2021-27 budget, according to the EU officials. Neither specified the exact sum in question. The Hungarian forint and bonds weakened on the news on Wednesday as European lawmakers denounced Orban for years of dismantling the...

Respect LBGT rights or get out of the EU, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte instructed Hungary’s Viktor Orban at last week’s gathering of the European Union in Brussels. According to Reuters, attendees described it as the “most intense personal clash among the bloc’s leaders in years.” What caused the clash? Hungary just passed a law that bans schools from using materials seen as pro-homosexuality. According to the AP, the new law “prohibits sharing content on homosexuality or sex reassignment to people under 18 in school sex education programs, films or advertisements.” Rutte eagerly related details of his confrontation with Orban:...

When Hungarians head to the polls on April 8, they will not just be deciding about their country’s future for the next four years, but for many decades to come, the prime minister said in an interview to a local broadcaster in south-western Hungary’s Nagykanizsa on Thursday. “This will not be a regular election,” Viktor Orban said. “There is a struggle going on in Europe,” Orban said. At the centre of it is the question of which countries will get to “stay out of the global trend which creates immigrant countries taking in more and more mixed populations, cultures and...