We should fight Hungary’s corner

"The complaints of the Euro-federalist fanatics against Hungary ostensibly relate to the recent Fourth Amendment to its constitution. For example, they condemn Article 17 because, if they fine Hungary, the charge will be passed directly on to Hungarian taxpayers: “This could undermine the authority of the Court of ­Justice…” They would prefer a middleman to soften the blow. They also complain that judges retired early have not yet been reinstated: the EU believes reinstating Communist judges is the way to purify democracy in Hungary.

This is a diversion. The EU was attacking Hungary before the Fourth Amendment was drawn up; its real target is the constitution itself. That document is exceptional today in its cultural and moral integrity. In splendidly Burkean terms it is declared to be “a contract between Hungarians past, present and future”, the critical dimension omitted in post-French Revolution constitutions. It recognises “the role of Christianity in preserving nationhood” and “professes that the family and the nation constitute the principal framework of our coexistence”, besides protecting human life from conception and defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.

No wonder the Robespierres in the Jacobin Convention at Brussels are spewing hate. If such a document is allowed to survive, then so will Hungarian nationhood – and other European nations besides. Christianity, family, nationhood are precisely the trinity that the European Union aspires to destroy. Hungary is fighting our battle too; it is shameful that we are not battling alongside her."