Can we really put Orban in the category of "European leaders"?

Seems more like "Putin followers"

As the leader of a EU country, he can veto top-level EU decisions, so in that sense he is.

EU needs a new structure for taking decisions.

Yeah, good luck with establishing that. The 27 EU member states are still separate sovereign nations, and nationalism has been on the rise in recent years.

Wars are exactly what’s establishing things like that.

You’re referring to the nationalism I presume. That’s true, but it doesn’t help the overall situation, unless you believe that we should just let Putin do what he wants with Ukraine.

There is an alternative structure - multilateral agreements between nations, ignoring the EU entirely.

That would be a good idea, indeed, at least for military matters.

It would eliminate the "Orban" problem.

He can but it’s not a huge issue because the countries that want to act can do so outside of EU structures, which would be necessary given the UK isn’t in the EU.

Who cares about Hungary? Get France, Germany, the UK, Poland, the baltics and that's plenty enough

He has veto power as Hungary is part of the EU. It might sound strange from the point of view of the big guy that doesn't even recognize the International Criminal Court, but in the EU small countries have a voice too, although in this case it sadly works against the common good.

We (Germany) don’t need Hungary to order a thousand Taurus and a hundred thousand Drones and hand them to Ukraine. We don’t need Hungary to negotiate a nuclear umbrella with France. We don’t need Hungary to cancel F35, which will probably never be delivered anyways. Hungary, on the other Hand, needs Germany to pay most of their bills. It’s time to give Orban a taste of his own style.

You, Germany, need Hungary selling you Russian LNG, as you, Germany put your head up into your ass with sanctions against Russia.

You either change your position or your economy will continue to degrade and more of your factories will get closed and you will lose more positions on the market of automobiles and will get higher unemployment rate and higher unrest levels. And given your multicultural policy of welcoming Muslim immigrants - the unrest may get accelerated with just a few more "incidents" where someone rides into a crowd again or decides to start a jihad on some street in one of your cities.

Change their position how, exactly? Are you arguing for more or less sanctions?

Depends on whether Germany wants to participate in a war or prefers peace and good relations with countries important to their economy (either as one that sells them something or as one whose territory could be used as a market for the goods you produce and sell).

Hm?

https://www.cleanenergywire.org/sites/default/files/styles/g...

Wow, the pro Russia brigading on this forum today is incredible. Absolutely wild.

It's no more "strange" than US Senators from Wyoming or N Dakota or Vermont or Alaska having a veto. To pick one example, the US Senate veto is why the US consistently refused to recognize the Armenian genocide for many decades.

Hungary by no means has a veto on everything. The 27 EU member states vote on most issues by qualified majority (55% of member states = 15 countries, and >= 65% of total population). On a narrow set of issues (foreign, defense, finance, treaties, EU enlargement) they have a veto.

Senators do not have a veto. They have a vote.

You think Germany and France are invested in defending Ukraine when the US isn’t doing the heavy lifting?

The US hasn't been doing the heavy lifting. It's been Europe.

They were doing the bare minimum under Biden, and are now actively helping Putin.

How is the US helping Putin?

All I'm saying is that Hungary means jack shit, they have no money, no strategic industry, no proper army

Funding Ukraine is not the "heavy lifting". The heavy lifting is when Putin invades Finland after taking Ukraine, and Germany and France are forced to respond militarily against a Russia aligned with the US.

Heavy lifting like sending 31 tanks while putin had 10000?

Who absorbed 5 million Ukrainian refugees? Europe, not the US. (Even Canada took more). And there could be millions more yet depending on the ceasefire/settlement arrangement.

Who paid € billions more in energy costs since 2022? Europe, not the US. [0][1] Germany in particular got crucified, and its manufacturing base fled to China (also in part due to the German Greens' historic Cold-War opposition to nuclear, nut that's a long story).

[0]: https://www.euronews.com/business/2025/02/24/three-years-on-...

[1]: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/24/eu-spends-more...