The European Union on Wednesday began the process of clawing back hundreds of millions of euros in funds meant to go Hungary after its ant-migrant government refused to pay a huge fine for breaking the bloc’s asylum rules.

In June, the EU’s top court ordered Hungary to pay 200 million euros ($223 million) for persistently depriving migrants of their right to apply for asylum. The court imposed an additional fine of 1 million euros for every day it failed to comply.

The European Court of Justice described Hungary’s actions as “an unprecedented and extremely serious infringement of EU law.” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán slammed its ruling as “outrageous and unacceptable.”

  • thebestaquaman@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    *Breaks the law

    *Is convicted

    *Refuses to pay fines

    *Stops receiving funds

    *shockedpikachu.jpg

    At this point I really can’t understand what is driving Orban anymore. He obviously must have known this would happen, and is likely doing it on purpose so that he can point at the EU as the “bad guy” back home, but like… what does he gain from this? Isn’t it better to just get a shitload of free money from the EU that you can funnel to your friends and family than to not do that? If he legitimately dislikes the EU he can just leave.

    Maybe he’s just sticking around as long as he can grab cash? It kind of seems like he’s going for the “see how far you can push it before you’re kicked out” play. Essentially trying to find out how much of an obstructing, law-breaking, corrupt asshole he has to be before the rest of the EU finally has enough and kicks him out, at which point he can peace out to some safe-haven (I’ve heard there are spare rooms in some of Putins palaces).

    • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyz
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      At this point I really can’t understand what is driving Orban anymore.

      If he stops stealing, his empire collapses, and he (or his family who are also involved) might even see some form of consequences. The EU does not let him steal any more, hence the openness to the East.

    • gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works
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      It appears that Orban is somehow envious of Luka’s relationship with Putin, regardless of the fact that Belarus has essentially transformed into a Russian puppet state.

    • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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      Orban is 100% compromised. I don’t know what Putin has on him exactly but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s the Eptein type of kompromat.