Latest leaked Skype interview: ‘If Orbán were voted out, there would be a massive sigh of relief in Brussels’

Brussels and the international media apply double standards to Hungary not only in political but also in economic matters. This according to Dalibor Rohac, a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who has been following the processes of Central and Eastern Europe and the EU.

At one point during the leaked video, the interviewer, who has not been identified, asks the researcher what kind of attitude a leader other than Viktor Orbán — but someone who pursued the same policies — could expect from the European media and political elite.

“The media elites and the European institutions tend to give the presumption of innocence to people they consider to be their own, for example, in situations where Orbán is denied the same presumption," Rohac began, citing former Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico as an example.

The government led by Fico, who was a nominal Social Democrat, faced allegations of serious corrupt, but Fico was still considered their man because he sat in the S&D group in the European Parliament, Rohac explained, noting that “Fico did not have to face such negative reaction from Brussels as Viktor Orbán did.”

“I think if Orbán were voted out and the Hungarian Socialists came back, there would be a massive breath of relief in Brussels,” the research fellow said, recalling that “the Socialists got defeated in 2010, precisely on the back of corruption scandals. The Hungarian problem didn't start with Orbán. The country was polarized for a long time.”

Dalibor Rohac then turned to detailing the nature of Brussels’ double standards. “In many ways, [Bulgaria and Romania] are in worse shape than Hungary and Poland. But I think especially from the perspective of European institutions, they are sort of manageable, right?” he said. He then added that “[EU institutions] just send enough structural funds their way. And even if some of it would get stolen or misused, these countries will basically do what you want them to do.”

Did you catch that? Rohac implies that as long as EU member states play along, everything will be fine with their funding. The EU financial resources, he suggests, buy their loyalty. That’s deeply troubling.

In the researcher’s view, the EU’s double standards are perfectly illustrated by the example of how the relationships member states have with Russia are treated differently. According to Rohac, while “currently Bulgaria is the closest to Russia, and it is known that several other countries, including Czechia and Austria, are cooperating with Russia,” international media only criticizes Hungary.

Dalibor Rohac’s opinion is very similar to what former OSF director Andrej Nosko had to say in a leaked Skype interview. According to Nosko, for international watchdog organizations like Freedom House, “if it's not your friends in government, then whatever they do, it's just not good enough.”

In a previous chapter of the footage obtained by Magyar Nemzet, Nosko also revealed how foreign journalists paint a distorted picture of Hungary in international media. Then just last week, a Hungarian journalist who worked for leading, leftist outlets exposed international NGOs’ far-reaching influence over foreign journalists. Meanwhile, several days ago, a former liberal MEP made headlines in Spain for speaking out against the double standards used in the cases of Hungary and Poland.