Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has thrown a wrench into globalist plans to extend funding for the Ukraine war in an apparent bid to give Donald Trump negotiating leverage should he return to the White House.
Former President Donald Trump has long vowed that he would seek an end to the bloody conflict in Europe if he wins the U.S. presidential election in November, promising to negotiate a peace settlement before he is even sworn into office in January.
Globalist leaders on both sides of the Atlantic have sought to constrain such peace efforts, with the G7 nations agreeing in July to provide a $50 billion loan to Kyiv financed by interest on $250 billion in Russian assets seised by Western powers in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, potentially limiting Trump’s ability to use purse strings to bring Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky to the table with Vladimir Putin.
For America to meaningfully contribute, with the Biden-Harris White House seeking to commit $20 billion to the loan, the European Union would need to revise its sanctions regime on Russia to extend for the next three years rather than the current package, which needs to be re-approved every six months.
However, to do so requires the assent of all EU member states, giving Orbán an effective veto over the $50 billion loan to Ukraine. The funding mechanism is due to be discussed at the next meeting of G7 finance ministers in Washington DC this month, but Budapest has said that it will not approve the extensions of sanctions until after the U.S. elections are decided in November.
“We believe that this issue, the prolongation of the Russian sanctions, should be decided after the U.S. elections. We have to see in which direction the future U.S. administration is going with this issue,” Hungarian Finance Minister Mihaly Varga said last week.
The move has predictably sparked outrage among the liberal political establishment in Europe, with POLITICO describing it as an attempt by Orbán to “serve up a major policy gift for his best friend across the Atlantic.”
Unnamed EU diplomats quoted by the website argued that preventing the U.S. from signing onto the loan would likely mean Europe would be forced to pay more to continue the war. Thus, the EU will likely attempt to use financial pressure on Hungary to force Budapest to back down.
There have also been moves to strip Hungary of its voting rights at the EU Council level to remove its ability to veto funding for Ukraine or oppose other globalist aims of Brussels.
“We are putting pressure, but so far Orbán is not caving,” said the EU diplomat, adding: “It’s just a game of chicken.”
Orbán, on the other hand, has argued that the mood in America is shifting against the war regardless, and that the EU should seek to end the conflict lest it be left being solely responsible for supporting Kyiv.
Appearing before the European Parliament in Strasbourg last week, Orbán urged for a pragmatic approach, declaring that “Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield” and thus it is in the interest of Europe to seek a peace settlement.
The Hungarian leader has long argued that it is crucial for Donald Trump to return to power so as to end the war in Ukraine and prevent the outbreak of a broader conflict between NATO powers and Moscow.
“I don’t see anyone other than him, neither in Europe nor in America, who is a leader strong enough to stop the war,” Orbán said earlier this year, proclaiming: “Peace has a name, that of Donald Trump.”
