Viktor Orban thinks the EU should leave Hungary free to deal with issues such as LGBTQ rights and immigration. What does history tell us about Hungary and sovereignty?
There is very little precedent for a genuinely sovereign Hungarian state over the last 500 years. Hungary was a battleground between the Ottomans and the Hapsburgs for centuries. When the Hapsburgs won the war, they took control over the Hungarian lands. A Hungarian attempt to win independence that started in 1848 was a miserable failure. The creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1867 gave Hungary a much greater degree of autonomy (as well as control over other ethnic groups in the Empire), but not independence. A much smaller Hungary was genuinely sovereign between the wars, but was swallowed up by the advance of the Red Army during World War II. Finally, Hungary agreed to give up a substantial amount of its right to self-rule in exchange for money and protection when it joined NATO and the EU after the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and the USSR.
Hungary simply doesn’t have the economic or military strength to stand on its own. That’s why Orban insists on being both a beggar and a chooser. In the end, that’s unsustainable; he will have to live within the limits of the EU and NATO or learn to get along without them.