Budapest vs Brussels

„Hungarians are used to foreign rule. The Mongols, the Turks, the Habsburgs, the Nazis and the Soviet Union have all left their mark. Sometimes the locals help the occupiers, sometimes they get in their way. Usually it’s a bit of both.

These time-honoured tactics have proved less successful under Hungary’s latest overlords: the European Union, especially as the country joined the club voluntarily. Today the European Commission launched legal action against Hungary over three issues: a new central-bank law, which it says opens the door to political control; judicial reforms that will see hundreds of judges forced to take early retirement; and concerns over the independence of the new data ombudsman. Hungary has a month to modify the laws. If it does not do so, it faces being hauled in front of the European Court of Justice.

Today's ruling is a serious setback for the right-wing Fidesz government. The groundswell of concern in Brussels and other western capitals about Fidesz’s relentless centralisation of power is steadily growing.”