Orban beats Merkel and Macron: the pro-European dream is already dead
Report Linkiesta
Of Francesco Cancellato
While the Meseberg summit between France and Germany gave birth to downward compromises and about-faces, Hungary has included a ban on helping migrants in its Constitution. If this was the window of opportunity to save the Union, it is already double locked
The plastic representation of the endless crisis of Europeanism is given to us by two events of the last two days. In the right corner, Viktor Orban, Hungarian Prime Minister, which inserts into the Constitution the ban on welcoming migrants and a one-year prison sentence for anyone who helps them, in what the media defined as the anti-Soros law. In the left corner, in what should be the cultural opposition to Orban, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron, than from Meseberg Castle of their bilateral summit on the major reform of the eurozone, they come out with a joint declaration on the repatriations of asylum seekers to the countries of first landing, i.e. Italy and Greece.
If it were a Puzzle Week game we would say "spot the differences".If it was supposed to be an answer to Budapest, the Franco-German move is the perfect assist for Matteo Salvini to replicate the policies of his Hungarian master. And indeed, as per the script, he has already threatened – pardon: threatened by Prime Minister Conte -di desert Sunday's summit with France, Germany and Spain and to close the Italian borders, if France and Germany try to impose what they promised.
If it were a Puzzle Week game we would say "spot the differences".If it was supposed to be an answer to Budapest, the Franco-German move is the perfect assist for Matteo Salvini to replicate the policies of his Hungarian master. And indeed, as per the script, he has already threatened – pardon: threatened by Prime Minister Conte -di desert Sunday's summit with France, Germany and Spain and to close the Italian borders, if France and Germany try to impose what they promised.
