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Russia turns to right-wing parties in EU

A Russian loan to France’s National Front. Invitations to Moscow for leaders of Austria’s Freedom Party. Praise for Vladimir Putin from the head of Britain’s anti-European Union party.

As the diplomatic chill over Ukraine deepens, the Kremlin is keen to enlist Europe’s far-right parties in its campaign for influence in the West.

Russia fears that NATO could spread to countries it considers part of its sphere of influence. And it has rightly served notice that it will not tolerate meddling, most recently with its Ukraine campaign.

Europe’s right-wing and populist parties, meanwhile, see an Atlanticist-dominated EU as contrary to their vision of Europe. They want to see a union of strong national states that do not toady to America.

The fact that many of Moscow’s allies are right to far-right reflects the Kremlin’s full turn. Under communism, nationalist parties were shunned as “xenophobic”.

Statements by leading critics of the EU, or euroskeptics, reflect their admiration of the Kremlin.

National Front founder Jean-Marie Le Pen told The Associated Press this month that France and Russia “have a communality of interest.”

Daughter Marine Le Pen, party president and a strong contender for the French presidency in 2017, envisions a Europe stretching “from the Atlantic to the Urals” — a “pan-European union” that includes Russia and is supported by other right-wing parties.

Nationalist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban perceives prevailing winds as “blowing from the East” and sees in Russia an ideal political model for his concept of an “illiberal state.”

The head of Britain’s euroskeptic Independence Party, Nigel Farage, has said Putin is the world leader he most admires.

Among other Moscow regulars from euroskeptic parties across Europe are members of Hungary’s anti-Semitic Jobbik and Austria’s Freedom Party.

Jobbik parliamentarian Bela Kovacs is under investigation in Hungary for allegedly “spying” for Russia.

While in Moscow recently, Freedom Party firebrand Johann Gudenus accused the European Union of kowtowing to NATO and America and denounced the spreading influence of the homosexual lobby in Europe.

Shunned at home by the liberal establishment and pro-American media, many are eager to gain air time on RT television, Russia’s international answer to CNN.

For them, “the benefit is that they can receive diplomatic support from a very high level from a superpower,” says Peter Kreko of Hungary’s Political Capital research institute.

Financial rewards are also incentives. Orban just signed a nuclear-reactor deal with Moscow. France is abuzz over the National Front’s recent 9 million euro loan from a Russian bank owned by a reputed Putin confidant.

Marine Le Pen describes it as “a perfectly legal loan that we will reimburse perfectly legally,” saying the party turned to Russia after being rejected by Western banks. But the transaction has galvanized fears among the National Front’s opponents of increased Kremlin influence, with the Socialists calling for an inquiry.

Links between Russia and the right predate the Ukraine conflict. A 2005 US diplomatic cable made public by Wikileaks noted close ties between Bulgaria’s extreme-right Ataka party and the Russian Embassy in Sofia.

And Joerg Haider, the late leader of Austria’s Freedom Party, helped powerful Russian businessmen with residency permits more than a decade ago in exchange for close to 1 million euros in campaign funding.

Putin’s friendships with German ex-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Italy’s former Premier Silvio Berlusconi were also useful for the Kremlin.

Now the diplomatic gloom is settling in, their strong domestic and EU election showings this year will help further its own interests, Moscow hopes.

Of the 24 right-wing populist parties that took about a quarter of the European Parliament’s seats in May elections, Political Capital lists 15 as “committed” to Russia.

Many owe their popularity to evidence that EU-friendly parties in power are to blame for the continent’s economic woes — a view that could grow if the downturn persists.

“What Russia is saying is, ‘It’s fine for you to be the way you are’,” says analyst Melik Kaylan, in a study for the Institute of Modern Russia.

Hungary threatened by Maidan-style protest

Budapest has been shaken by several days of mass street demonstration against plans by Viktor Orban’s government to introduce a tax on the internet. According to the media, 100,000 Hungarians came out onto the streets of Hungary’s capital to tell the prime minister “no”.

In and of itself, the internet tax is a weak excuse for the organisation of 100,000-strong demonstrations. And, of course, demands to abolish the tax turned into demands for the resignation of Hungary’s ‘dictatorial’ and ‘corrupt’ government. Attacks were also launched on government buildings: as one, internet users pelted them with stones, notebooks and mobile phones.

Other signs of a ‘Hungarian Maidan’ were also evident: demonstrators defiantly jumped around chanting “He who does not jump pays the tax” (the Ukrainian version of this standard spectacle is “He who does not jump is a Moskal”). Local human rights defenders declared that introducing a tax on the internet is an assassination attempt on freedom of speech unacceptable for a democracy.

Among the demonstrators was the U.S. charge d’affaires in Hungary, Andre Goodfriend, who previously reported that the US authorities had banned six Hungarian nationals close to the Hungarian prime minister from entering the country.

It appears that Washington was protesting against the corrupt practices of these Hungarian nationals and expressed its displeasure to Viktor Orban in Brussels. On her Twitter page, the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, backed the street demonstrations and called for those who still had not done so to join them.

Western media write that Orban is under the influence of Putin. Orban himself has had to state more than once that he is not a pro-Russian but a pro-Hungarian politician, but he continues to be accused of yielding to pressure from Moscow. And no wonder: he has introduced restrictions on the work of foreign companies in the country, has too much power concentrated in his hands, and has approved Hungary’s neoliberal Constitution.

Orban is guilty before European democracy in a number of ways. As the father of five children, he resolutely opposes attempts to register the cohabitation of same-sex couples as ‘marriage’. He was also opposed to economic sanctions against Russia, calling them nonsensical, and saying they would do more harm to EU countries than to Russia. In addition, he is calling for compensation from Brussels for the losses incurred by Hungarian manufacturers as a result of curtailed cooperation with their Russian partners.

The head of the Hungarian government is not able to withstand all pressure, however. It was not long before Orban had to declare that Hungary stood with Germany in its assessment of events in Ukraine, and that the introduction of sanctions was a justified move.

It is easy to conclude that the change in the Hungarian prime minister’s initial position was a consequence of pressure from Berlin.

Thus, representatives of Deutsche Telekom’s subsidiary Magyar Telekom, Hungary’s largest internet company, have expressed their outrage at Orban’s plans to introduce a tax on the internet. Berlin is also putting pressure on Orban in other ways. Following German Minister of State for Europe Michael Roth’s visit to Budapest during the street demonstrations, the Hungarian prime minister declared that the government had listened to the people and the tax would not be introduced.

Yet the battle formations of a Maidan-style protest movement in Hungary remain ready to go. The leader of the protests, liberal Balazs Nemes, has reported that the protesters are in touch with each other and are ready to go back out onto the streets the instant that the authorities decide to launch an offensive on their civil rights. Balazs Nemes has referred to Viktor Orban’s leadership style as “the most appalling tyranny”.

The Hungarian prime minister’s independence, including with regard to Russia, has long irritated both Brussels and Washington.

Viktor Orban’s statements regarding his intention of finding allies in Europe capable of opposing the introduction of new sanctions against Russia together have not gone unnoticed.

Western capitals have been particularly outraged by the fact that on 4 November 2014, the Hungarian parliament passed a law allowing the construction of the South Stream pipeline to take place in Hungary, despite the position of the European Commission. Thanks to this law, Hungary now has a legal basis for refusing to comply with the requirements of the EU’s Third Energy Package.

Protests in Budapest against “the most appalling tyranny” are a warning to Viktor Orban, and a reminder of the fate of another Viktor – Viktor Yanukovych.

The street protests organised in the Hungarian capital should also be regarded as a warning to eastern European ‘Russophiles’ like Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico or Czech President Miloš Zeman, since their attitude towards anti-Russian sanctions and events in Ukraine is much like that of Orban.

Source: Ron Paul Institute

Hungary breaks ranks with EU

Hajra, magyarok! Hajra Magyarorszag! Hungary has broken ranks with the European Union and may it’s spirited defiance continue.

Not long ago Hungary was being toasted in the West for opening its border with Austria to East Germans. This bold move led to the fall of the Berlin Wall.

But Western elites are not happy with the independently minded Budapest any longer. But bullying Hungary does not make many headlines because it’s so-called “democratic” Westerners doing the bullying.

The Hungarian parliament approved a law to build the South Stream gas pipeline from Russia without the approval of the European Union, and the ruling Fidesz Party largely ignoring enraged foreign owned banks and energy companies.

The refusal of Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Fidesz to join the new US and EU Cold War against Russia has been met with anger and rage in Washington and Brussels.

Hungarian officials have been banned from entering the US, while the European Commission is trying to pressure the authorities on South Stream with legal action against the Hungarian government for its law restricting the rights of foreigners to buy agricultural land.

Viktor Orban is a nationalist and a conservative but that doesn’t really matter. Only obsequious servility to Uncle Sam and the Euro-elites matter, all in the name of “freedom” and “democracy.”

Fidesz returned to power in 2010. The previous Socialist administration was hugely popular in the West because it played lapdog to Washington and Brussels and the international banks, even taking out an unnecessary IMF loan.

Fidesz and its coalition allies, the Christian Democratic People’s Party, (KDNP) rather introduced a $855m bank tax, the highest in Europe, leaving the financial elite foaming at the mouth.

Orban clashed with the IMF too, with his government rejecting new loan terms in 2012, and paying off early a loan taken out by the previous government, to reduce interest payments.

Russia is Hungary’s third biggest trading partner and ties between the two countries have strengthened in the last couple of years, to the consternation of western Russophobes. In April, a deal was struck for Moscow to loan Hungary €10 billion to help upgrade its nuclear plant at Paks.

Orban’s policy of improving trade and business links with Russia, while staying a member of the EU and NATO, has however been put under increasing strain by the new hostile policy towards Moscow from Washington and Brussels.

Orban also spoke up for rights of the 200,000 strong Hungarian community living in Ukraine.”Ukraine can neither be stable, nor democratic, if it does not give its minorities, including Hungarians, their due. That is dual citizenship, collective rights and autonomy.”

Hungary’s Ambassador was immediately summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Kiev. Donald Tusk, Prime Minister of Poland – the US’s most obedient servant in Eastern Europe – quickly called Orban’s comments “unfortunate and disturbing” in order to impress his masters. Little did it matter that it was strictly none of Tusk’s business.

In August, Orban accurately described the sanctions policy of the West towards Russia as like “shooting oneself in the foot.”

In October, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also questioned the sanctions on Russia, revealing that his country is losing 50 million forints a day due to the policy.

Hungary has made its position clear, but for daring to question EU and US policy, and for its rapprochement with Moscow, the country has been punished.

It’s democratically elected civilian government which enjoys high levels of public support, has ludicrously – and obscenely – been likened to military governments which have massacred their opponents. “From Hungary to Egypt, endless regulations and overt intimidation increasingly target civil society,” declared US President Barack Obama in September.

Last month there was another salvo fired at Hungary – it was announced that the US had banned six unnamed Hungarian government officials from entering America, citing concerns over corruption- without the US providing any proof of the corruption.

“At a certain point, the situation, if it continues this way, will deteriorate to the extent where it is impossible to work together as an ally,” warned the Charge D’Affaires of the US Embassy in Budapest, Andre Goodfriend.

The failure to provide any evidence, understandably caused outrage in Hungary. “The government of Hungary is somewhat baffled at the events that have unfolded because this is not the way friends deal with issues,” said Janos Lazar, Orban‘s chief of staff.

“I am inclined to think that it is a punishment for the fact that we talk to Russia,” said Gabor Stier, the head foreign policy editor of the leading Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet.

“America thinks that we are corrupt, but we are a sovereign state, and it is our business. Many people in the United States do not like that Viktor Orban is very independent…..Corruption is just an excuse.”

The 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index compiled by Transparency International, reveals that Latvia, the Czech Republic, Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria and Bosnia-Herzegovina are all below Hungary, as indeed is Italy. Yet it’s Hungarian officials that the US is banning.

‘Is Hungary, the EU’s only dictatorship?’ asked Bloomberg View in April. The BBC ran a hostile piece on Orban and Fidesz in October entitled ‘Cracks Emerge in leading party’.

The piece looked forward to the end of Fidesz rule.

While earlier this week, the New York Times published an OpEd by Kati Marton, whose late husband Richard Holbrooke, was a leading US diplomat, entitled ‘Hungary’s Authoritarian Descent’.

You’d never guess that the Hungarian government wasn’t the flavor of the month in the West would you?

Will Hungary be the next country to be the target of a US/EU sponsored regime change?

Attacks on Orban and his government are sure to intensify but the more the West attacks, the more popular Orban becomes as the defender of Hungary’s national interests.

Hungary gave the West everything it wanted in 1989, and its “reformist” leadership was richly rewarded. But it seems that for the West it’s never enough.

Hungary seeks EU alliance with closer ties to Russia

Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday said he would seek to form a political alliance to stop the European Union pulling away from Russia over the crisis in Ukraine.

“The EU gets further away from Russia every day. That’s not only bad for Hungary, but for the entire EU,” Orban told Hungarian ambassadors in Budapest.

“We will have to seek the company of those EU member states who are interested in slowing and stopping this separation process,” he added, without naming any specific countries.

Ties between the West and Russia have hit a post-Cold War low over the crisis in Ukraine, with the European Union and Washington slapping massive sanctions on Moscow over its perceived support for separatists.

Russia hit back with sanctions of its own, banning nearly all food imports from the EU and United States.

Orban, who has been criticised for steering Hungary away from Europe and towards Russia, insisted Monday that the country’s Western alliances were “not in doubt”. But he again warned that isolating Russia could hurt Europe’s competitiveness.

Austrian bank Erste suffers record loss

Austria’s largest bank by assets, and the third biggest bank in Eastern Europe after UniCredit and Raiffeisen, announced that its earlier forecast about the amount of bad loans on its books is wrong, and will have to rise by a massive 40%, leading to what will be a record $2.2 billion loss, and triggering writedowns.

Analysts, whose job it is to predict these things, were shocked:”This is a clearly bad surprise as it comes in addition to the already ‘badly surprising’ warning issued by the group at the beginning of this year,” Natixis Securities SAS analyst Steven Gould said in a note to clients. “These announcements hurt the management’s credibility going forward.”

What was the catalyst for the early recognition of the massive writedown? Bloomberg explains:

The provisions are caused by new rules due to be approved by Parliament in Hungary today, forcing banks to refund unfair loan fees, and by the Romanian central bank’s push for faster bad-debt reduction amid the European Central Bank’s bank health check, Erste said. Writedowns on goodwill and deferred tax assets, triggered by the loan-loss provisions, may reach as much as 1 billion euros.

“By taking these measures, we have done everything in our power to avoid one-off effects from 2015 onward,” Chief Executive Officer Andreas Treichl said in the statement. “We are convinced that these measures will also help us pass the asset-quality review and stress test comfortably.”

Hungary contributed to Erste’s loss with a new law forcing it to repay some loan costs to customers. New rules due to be approved by Parliament in Budapest today will require banks to refund certain expenses on as much as 6.5 trillion forint ($28 billion) of loans going back as far as 10 years, according to the draft bill.

Higher bad-debt provisions in Romania, the Black Sea country of 20 million where Erste bought Banca Comerciala Romana SA for 3.75 billion euros in 2005, were caused by the central bank’s pressure on banks to clean up their balance sheets as part of the ECB’s bank health check, Erste said.

Scraping the bottom of the barrel on Syria

Right behind the US on Syria — Albanians right behind the US on Syria

It’s not likely to ease Americans’ concerns about going to war, but the White House announced Monday that Albania is on board with the Obama administration’s plans to punish Syria.

Tiny Estonia, too, has agreed that Syria must be held accountable for using chemical weapons. The Coalition of the willing on Syria includes such superpowers as Albania, Estonia, Honduras.

Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Honduras, Hungary, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania and Morocco are the willing nations. And let’s not leave out Qatar, Romania and the United Arab Emirates.

They are the latest countries to sign on to a statement condemning the Syrian regime and calling for a “strong international response,” although not necessarily the missile strikes proposed by President Obama. A total of 25 nations support the statement, including the U.S. and Great Britain. – Washington Times

Nazi war criminal, 98, charged in Hungary

Top Nazi war crimes suspect Laszlo Csatary, accused of overseeing thousands of Jewish deportations during World War II, was charged with war crimes on Tuesday in Hungary, prosectors said.

The 98-year-old, under house arrest since last year after apparently living for years undisturbed in Hungary, is listed by the Wiesenthal Center as its most-wanted alleged Nazi war criminal. – Sapa

EU debt relief for North African states?

European governments have opened the door to a radical offer of “debt relief” for Arab north African neighbours such as Egypt, EU and governmental sources told AFP Wednesday.

“Member states will examine possibilities of using debt relief as a signal of change” along the southern Mediterranean rim, conclusions drawn up for European Union leaders to endorse at a March 1-2 summit revealed.

The plan emerged barely 24 hours after eurozone governments backed an unprecedented write-down of Greek sovereign debt held by private investors, one expected to reduce Athens’ debt burden by nearly one third, some 107 billion euros ($141 million).

It is being driven primarily by the French government, diplomats said on the eve of first talks on the proposal among ambassadors from the 27 EU states in Brussels on Thursday morning.

“Expect a vigorous discussion,” said one senior EU official on the possible terms for debt relief that could be awarded in exchange for democratic reforms and preferential trade terms.

The idea is gaining currency one year on from the start of the ‘Arab Spring,’ with “rapid progress” demanded by EU leaders, the summit declaration was to say, on negotiations over Free Trade Agreements between the EU and the countries of its “southern neighbourhood.”

“We need to see who else shows a determination here, who is neutral at this stage and who will put up opposition,” the EU official said.

“No-one’s really talking about numbers yet, the European Commission won’t come up with finished proposals until April,” said another official with a national government.

However, this source said “billions of dollars” could eventually be at stake.

The EU executive has drafted detailed proposals on relations with countries from Morocco to Egypt that EU leaders want to integrate into the world’s biggest barrier-free market for goods and services.

The draft summit declaration, if endorsed, would turn debt relief into an incentive alongside threats to withdraw support for states accused of oppression or grave human rights violations.

The biggest of the ‘Arab Spring’ revolts one year ago, Egypt is struggling with sharply dwindling foreign reserves and transitional authorities are weighing up a much-delayed aid package worth some $3.0 billion from the International Monetary Fund.

Credit rating giant Standard & Poor’s raised its risk assessment for Egypt earlier this month, citing political instability as Cairo moves towards the election of a new president, expected in June after ousted ex-leader Hosni Mubarak’s murder and corruption trial wraps up.

Egyptian press reports in recent days have said the EU could lend the country 500 million euros alongside money from Washington.

Thursday’s discussion on who might benefit from what terms on which debts is sensitive, with EU trio Greece, Portugal and Ireland having to repay mainly eurozone partners for their bailouts for years to come.

Fears remain about the long-term prospects of full repayment from Athens.

Hungary can be expected to protest. Only on Wednesday, economy commissioner Olli Rehn asked EU governments to suspend almost 500 million euros in grants due to Budapest next year.

The governments of Hungary, Poland and Romania last week expressed mounting fears that incentives for southern EU neighbours would come at their expense, the EU source also said. – AFP