Hungary’s rightwing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, is threatening to veto the new EU budget over a provision that would link some funding to rule-of-law concerns. As the standoff intensifies, he has found a familiar enemy to blame: the 90-year-old financier and philanthropist George Soros. Orbán has consistently claimed that European critics are punishing Hungary because of its anti-migrant stance, rather than for well-documented concerns over corruption and rule-of-law. “Europe must not succumb to the Soros network,” wrote Orbán recently. Negotiations on the EU budget are about to enter a crunch phase.

Source: The Guardian December 05, 2020 04:52 UTC