RT by @StevensHelga: The New York Times tells how EU leaders danced over Orban to convince him to lift the block on the €50 billion package to Ukraine.

It was a game of good cop and bad cop, writes the NYT. Some leaders jokingly told Orban they would send him bills for the nights they spent with him in Brussels trying to persuade him to support funding for Ukraine. Others were not joking and said that they would begin the procedure for excluding Hungary from EU procedures. Still others offered him a friendly late-night drink so he could complain about how the evil European bureaucracy had united against him for ideological reasons.

“Bad Cop” was played by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel. On Monday, he summoned Orban and bluntly stated that he would not see the right to veto the aid package for Ukraine in a year. Michel put his “nuclear option” on the table: he told Orban that he would face a procedure for depriving him of his vote in the EU - an unprecedented step for the EU.

On Wednesday evening, Orban met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, his comrade in far-right ideology. It was a meeting over a bottle of champagne on green velvet armchairs in the premier room of the exemplary five-star Amigo Hotel in the heart of Brussels. Meloni gently convinced Orbán that it would be much more profitable for him to join the EU’s common line, it would be better for everyone.

The next move was Emmanuel Macron. The French President suggested that Orbán make some changes to the EU joint statement, which would take into account some of Orbán's complaints about the EU. (The EU is blocking €20 billion from Hungary due to problems with corruption and democracy caused by Orban's 17 years in power. [The EU will not release these funds to Orban in exchange for the Ukraine deal].

In parallel, at the other end of the street at the EU headquarters, a meeting of…

🐦🔗: https://nitter.cz/yasminalombaert/status/1753424216186138777#m

[2024-02-02 14:24 UTC]