The conservatives of incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz and their likely center-left coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), have agreed to demand the bloc withhold funds and suspend voting rights from countries that violate key principles such as the rule of law, according to a draft coalition agreement seen by POLITICO.
While Hungary wasn’t mentioned by name, the draft agreement is clearly referring to the EU’s worst offender, which for years has been accused of taking a wrecking ball to democratic norms, curtailing the freedom of the press and restricting the independence of judges.
What realistially can EU and Germany do?
EU is already withholding funding, although they have to pay Hungary every time they have to pass something in EU.
Do they even have the vote to suspend voting rights when they have Slovak PM going crazy as well?
If Orbán gets “sanctioned” maybe Slovakia will start to think twice about biting the hand that feeds it. And if they also continue to push the Russian agenda then we’ll have an established protocol to deal with them.
They are not withholding all funding.