RE HUNGARY: EU PREZ FOR 6 MONTHS ON

I'm sure there are many, many things at work, etc. But there are two that strike me this morning, the 2nd day of Hungary's occupying the rotating EU presidency.

1 Opening the half-year presidency with a Roman Catholic mass appears to be an anachronistic, neo-medieval symbol. Inaugurating, sort of, the EU as a 21st-century Holy Roman Empire--by the PM of a country that was excluded from the Holy Roman Empire. Nice, in a hysterical sort of way.

That is all perfectly meaningless--except it works to annoy . . .

 

a those who are not religious,

b those who are not Christian,

c those who are not Catholic, and

d those who are not Roman Catholic.

Orbán (henceforth: VO) thrives on annoying people. So, it works, period.

This is the typical thing the overachieving graduates of neofascist--Franco-ist? Salazar-ist? Mussolini-ist? Perón-ist? take your pick--political cells that flourish around the RC high schools, people who surround VO would be able to think of . . . for . . . no particular reason, but to annoy those on the list above, and to please their father . . . pun intended. This--despite Orbán being not even Roman Catholic. (He is a member of the Hungarian Reformed Church.) Works even better that way, doesn't it.

2 Then, there was this enigmatic, previously un-announced road trip to Kyiv. The entire Hungarian media (plus much of the rest I have seen) missed the point that he went there as Emperor . . . khm. . . errrrrgh . . . Rotating President of the EU. . . to talk about borders and settlements. That's the kind of thing emperors do, right? At least that's what he must have learned in high school, the last time he paid attention. The media talk about the fact that he had not been to Ukraine as PM of Hungary. Of course not. He is sending the world a message: He is the "Emperor" of the EU now. Talking borders, war, peace, that kind of thing. Emperor-ialistic things. For six months, for now--but that's a beginning, isn't it.

A bold, risky and deeply cynical move, betraying a deep and extremely pessimistic reading of European imperial history . . . the sort of reading we have seen on display on part of . . . his neonazi friends in Europe and north America, a bunch of Stalinist fringe elements . . . plus the Russian leadership (see Putin's long interview a few months ago, or Lavrov's repeated pronouncements and the moves of the Russian Foreign Ministry). I think this--the idea that such a vulgar-simplistic reading of European history is motivating VO--is an accurate description of his state of mind, no matter whether he went there ("also") "on behalf" of the US, NATO, von der Leyen, Le Pen, Pres Xi, or Putin, or some / all of the above. It's a chess move with several consequences, all at once.

BTW, all of the world geopolitical centers mentioned in the previous paragraph would benefit from some semblance of a solution, and that would be a godsend even if they would have to credit him for it, at least partly. They would credit the Flaming Red Belzebub if he were to rid them of this war without losing face. And this offers VO a chance to play, or just appear to play, a game that is much bigger than Hungary. This is how he shifts scales (Hungary--.2% of the world economy, more or less measurement error--to EU, 19% of the world economy. . . to, who knows, maybe NATO, 40%+ of the world economy), without armies or global economic weight of his own (Hungary). That's your veritable European Emperor. Only in words. But words--he has.

Here is a football analogy, motivated by the ongoing European Tournament: VO is a typical center forward. A small guy who has little chance to win in direct contact against much bigger defenders . . . so he sticks around the opponent's penalty box and waits, and waits, and waits . . . until an exceptionally fortunate ball comes around . . . then he makes one or two quick moves . . . and sees what happens.

That's him, right there. The question is whether he can score--while he is so, so far out of shape.

RE HUNGARY: EU PREZ FOR 6 MONTHS OFF

ADDITION 9 DAYS LATER:

It is clear that the answer to my closing question ("whether he can score") is negative. The entire trip: --Kyiv-Moscow-Beijing-Washington-- was a complete flop. The power holders he visited basically called his bluff without much fuss. He is, clearly, trying to be something--a geopolitical factor--which he isn't. It would be really sad, were it not upsetting what he is doing with European politics, not to mention Hungary.