The political director of the Hungarian prime minister, Balázs Orbán, argues that the EU’s political elite is using the war in Ukraine as a pretext to accelerate a federalist project that restricts national sovereignty. Although he stressed the moral responsibility of helping Ukraine after the Russian aggression, he denounced that the war has become the central argument used to justify an acceleration of the federalist project. According to Orbán, before the war, centralization was defended by promising economic prosperity in exchange for sovereignty. Now, he said, it is presented as an unavoidable military necessity in the face of an allegedly inevitable war with Russia. This shift, he warned, “could lead to a permanent state of political exception in which freedom of expression diminishes,” national sovereignty is reduced, and European budgets fall outside the control of the member states. He also criticized the European Union for refusing to explore diplomatic avenues to end the conflict, in contrast to what he described as diplomatic efforts by the United States to reach a negotiated solution.
