What has stopped them invoking Article 7 until now?
this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
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It requires unanimity of the other members, Hungary was protected by PiS in Poland (who are also corrupt authoritarians) until they were voted out, there was then a short window of a couple of months where the EU squibbed their chance, then Slovakia replaced their chad Prez with Fico who is also a corrupt authoritarian and the opportunity was lost.
What they can do is get all the preparatory stuff done and wait to see if Slovakia replace Fico, or (very unlikely but not impossible) the challenger to Orban manages to win. If neither happens then giving Fico a bigger bribe than Putin does is the last resort.
It requires unanimity of the other members, Hungary was protected by PiS in Poland (who are also corrupt authoritarians) until they were voted out, there was then a short window of a couple of months where the EU squibbed their chance, then Slovakia replaced their chad Prez with Fico who is also a corrupt authoritarian and the opportunity was lost.
Your timeline doesn't work:
- the Morawiecki II government was in office until November 27, 2023
- the Fico IV government is in office since October 25, 2023
There was an overlap rather than a gap.
Don't take Meloni for granted.
Fico from Slovakia. Before that the Pis from Poland. Article 7 is invoked by the council, not the parliament. Nothing will happen again...
They should be slow to do this type of thing. If this becomes easy or common then the EU will break up.
Well good riddance to the backsliding countries who won't adhere to EU values. Close the door when you leave so the rest of us can continue uninterrupted.
Backsliding democracies in the EU wants nothing more than slow action on these types of things
Oh for Christ's sake. Are you a Russian Bot?
Hungary is playing Russians Puppet for many years now. Why do you come now with this slippery slope Bullshit?
Oh no. The EU will lose 1 out of dozens of members which is literally not a democracy anymore, instead of actually upholding its values of democracy
It's already a two step process with the first step requiring some kind of evidence that the country in question is breaching the founding values of the EU. If they are then the first step is about giving them a warning. If they can't show they're still in line with the founding values then you get to step 2 where the EU effectively unilaterally agree to revoke the rights.
I've already glossed over some nuances but I think it should already be evident that process is far from easy and it's definitely not fast. I also don't remember if the EU has ever even gotten to the first step. I think the closest they've gotten with Hungary is considering the possibility of proposing a breach of values, which is just a bunch of nothing.
Evidence is already clear and has been "approved" (for lack of a better word). Orban has already had funding frozen and fines imposed for various breaches
I agree, but it seems there's no group of politicians willing to invoke article 7 when it comes to Hungary.
Well there are clearly some their names are in the article at the top of the thread. It's more a question of how many.
It's been squibbed for years, maybe now Europe has recognised the other threats they'll deal with this 5th columnist along the way.
Oh yeah, my bad. I was thinking about the past not the present.
It sends a bad message to local European politicians and by extension their voters, so if possible, EU bureaucracy avoids (inner) conflict.
Already the EU is taking steps to get around Budapest as it looks to maintain support for Ukraine against Russia’s aggression and ramp up the European defense industry, according to officials. Finnish Foreign minister Elina Valtonen said there are plans to forge a partnership among countries that can sidestep any internal opposition [...]
Finding a way to deal with Orban “is becoming existential for the EU,” said Katarzyna Pisarska, chair of the Warsaw Security Conference. “What I’m expecting in the next weeks is an effort to circumvent Hungary via more enhanced cooperation and coalition-of-the-willing type schemes.” [...]
Plot twist orban vetos this
The country subjected to Article 7 can't veto it. Luckily.
I’d be surprised if Fico wouldn’t have Orbáns back in this case, though.
He's already made it clear that he is aligned with Putain and Orban, so yeah, it's the current barrier
Not so sure, they have fallen in line more with the EU after the US went insane
Even then, I imagine Fico to be concerned he could be next if he helped get rid of Orbáns veto.
Kind of different situation though. Slovakia hasn't been subject to the democratic backsliding as Hungary as far as I know and doesn't violate EU values or norms. So far the prime minister is just a tool
Theres always someone opposing it. It was poland but they got their shit together, now its slovakia, in the future its gonna be someone else. We have a chance to fix this inside hungary with the next elections as now we have an opposition party that has some chance to win the election. Well see what happens.