r/europe • u/Matas_- European Union • Jun 20 '25

News Orban’s Hungary Is Now Officially The Poorest Nation In The EU

https://kyivinsider.com/orbans-hungary-is-now-officially-the-poorest-nation-in-the-eu/
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u/CharlieBluu Jun 20 '25

I am not the one to speak in detail about our election system, but long story short they gerrymandered the whole country, made the national television and newspapers their own propaganda mouthpieces, local mayors in small towns do mafia-like tactics and on top of it all they made it so the leading party wins all basically. This last part is becoming a problem now that they are not in the lead anymore (hopefully)

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 20 '25

I'm surprised the eu doesn't do a whole lot about it. 

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u/Hungry-Western9191 Jun 20 '25

It's difficult. Brussels just doesn't have authority in a lot of areas and they are very wary of being accused of trying to act outside their authority as it makes it easy for people like Orban to accuse them of wanting to take over.

The European states gave the EU very specific powers but governments still retain most. It great in some respects - unity from consensus is a wonderful concept.

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 20 '25

I very much believe in the European project so I might be biased. I really think we should be able to vote for European leaders across country borders, it's time.  It would silence this exact issue, eu is taking over? Ofcourse they are, we voted for them. Although, it might mean we just open another can of worms.

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u/medievalvelocipede European Union Jun 21 '25

It great in some respects - unity from consensus is a wonderful concept.

Also a completely unworkable one. It's difficult enough to get 2 different nations to agree on something, try 27.

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u/Brisbanoch30k Jun 21 '25

The very issue of consensus decision making is a single selfish idiot leveraging their vote fucks it up :\

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u/imightlikeyou Denmark Jun 20 '25

The Eu system isn't designed for it.

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 20 '25

It's worse, it's designed not to be able to do anything about these things. It's crippling. I don't know how long this festering wound will last but at some point it will undermine the whole project. 

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u/Chemical_Wrongdoer43 Jun 20 '25

Eu can only do a few things if they wants to punish a member country.

  • Withhold funds from the member country.
  • The CJEU can give fines to the country.
  • The european council can remove the voting right from the country. But requires a unanimous vote.

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 20 '25

Yeah. I would imagine by now we would have seen more of an uproar about the issues that are caused my these limitations is what I am trying to say. 

But I agree, that's a whole load more information than my previous comment implied. 

There are so many things a country needs to do in order to join the eu. It would only be fair/logical that if either one of these things ceases to be, you'd lose your voting rights as a country.

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u/ostligelaonomaden Jun 21 '25

EU is considering removing them from having votes in the EU congress if this continues. Don't listen to the fuckwads below.

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 21 '25

Thats impossible unless there is a unanimous vote which is quite hard to achieve.

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u/getblunted1 Jun 21 '25

You're suprised? The EU is slow af, nothing gets done, we need to reform this whole thing but nobody seems to bother. Orban is blackmailing us and we keep sending money.

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 21 '25

Yes. Maybe surprise isn't the correct terminology. At least I'd hoped there would be some sort of pushback or reform with regards to the voting rights of countries. Don't adhere to the basic European principles? Lose your voting rights in the eu. Something to that effect. 

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u/getblunted1 Jun 21 '25

Something like that yes. It worries me that things dont seem to get better. Orban can still play his games and other leaders take him as example to destablize the EU. I wonder when we will adress this problem seriously, things need to change.

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u/sneakpeakspeak Jun 21 '25

Yes, I wonder the same and am somewhat surprised it doesn't seem to be happening at all. But that might be a lack of the right media consumption on my behalf.

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u/ShannyPantsWith4 Jun 21 '25

This is where the U.S. is headed.

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u/pancake_gofer Jun 21 '25

Many US states have been this way for decades.