Visegrad’s
illusory union
As
bromance stirs between Poland and Hungary, Czech Republic and
Slovakia quietly build ties with Berlin.
By
Benjamin Cunningham
9/16/16, 5:30 AM CET
BRATISLAVA — The
four Visegrad countries have of late been seen as an exception to the
disunity across the European Union, and plan to use Friday’s EU
leaders summit in the Slovak capital to push for a rethink of the way
the EU functions after Brexit.
Not so fast. Poland,
Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia — so often lumped together
in a Euroskeptic club hostile to closer EU integration, wary of
domination by big Western European countries like Germany, and wary
of accepting migrants, especially Muslims — are themselves riven by
tensions. Their own disunity makes it harder for the Visegrad Group
to assert itself at the EU level.
The loudest of the
so-called V4 members, Poland and Hungary, garner most of the
headlines even as the Czechs and Slovaks quietly cling ever closer to
neighboring Germany. Both Budapest and Warsaw are now ruled by
right-wing nationalist parties that have found increasing ideological
support in one another.
Tatra bromance
The ties were
obvious earlier this month at an annual regional economic forum held
in Krynica, a resort town in Poland’s southern Tatra Mountains.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received a “man of the year”
award, and used the venue to lay out his thinking on Europe’s new
direction, and Central Europe’s role.
Significantly,
Robert Fico and Bohuslav Sobotka, the Slovak and Czech prime
ministers, weren’t around when Orbán took to the forum’s main
stage with Jarosław Kaczyński, Poland’s most powerful politician
and the Hungarian’s ideological soul mate. The pair let their
bromance come to full flower, lavishing each other with compliments.
26th Economic Forum
in Krynica-Zdroj
Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orbán (R) and Law and Justice (PiS) leader Jarosław
Kaczyński, (L) attend a debate ‘Europe after Brexit’, during the
XXVI Economic Forum in Krynica-Zdroj, southern Poland, September 6,
2016 | Darek Delmanowicz/EPA
Even though Slovakia
and the Czech Republic formally form a bloc together with Poland and
Hungary, there is little appetite for ship-rocking in either Prague
or Bratislava.
Czechs and Slovaks
are much keener than Poland on building strong ties with Germany —
their key economic and political ally — and both worry about being
left on the sidelines if the EU consolidates itself in reaction to
the threat posed by Brexit.
While Orbán calls
for a counter-revolution, Ivan Korčok, the Slovak state secretary
for EU affairs, told POLITICO that there is a need for a “deeper
reflection process.” Sobotka said he “fears trenches between West
and East.”
For its part,
Slovakia, the current holder of the rotating EU presidency, is the
only Visegrad Four member in the eurozone, and as a result more
exposed to continued EU turmoil. The country’s status as the
world’s largest per capita car manufacturer helped draw a new
investment by Jaguar Land Rover, adding to car plants owned by
Volkswagen, Hyundai and PSA Peugeot Citroën. They stand to benefit
if manufacturing flees the U.K. in the wake of a Brexit.
“Britain is
leaving the European Union, but we certainly will not depart from
Europe,” said Jaguar Land Rover CEO Ralf Speth, during a
groundbreaking ceremony at the new factory.
Although Fico may
well have personal affinities for the Orbán-Kaczyński line, he
oversees a three-party coalition government and policy has not moved
in step with the Warsaw-Budapest axis. The Slovak prime minister has
been outspoken on refugees, but moderated his populist stance after
March elections and as the country took over the rotating EU
presidency in July.
A Visegrad
meeting on February 15, 2016. The group consists of Poland, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia
“Migration is a
phenomenon we have to see with a longer term view,” Korčok said.
Four very different
countries
There may be strong
regional unity on the issue of refugees and migrants, and opposition
to Brussels mandates on renewable energy, but not much else. In other
political, social and foreign policy areas, there are more
differences than similarities.
Poland has
restrictive abortion laws and there is pressure in the Polish
parliament to tighten them even more, while the rest of Visegrad is
relaxed about the issue. The Czech Republic permits medical marijuana
and decriminalizes possession of small amounts for personal use.
Poland’s health minister recently moved to block medical marijuana
altogether, calling it a “deadly drug.”
The Czechs allow
“registered partnerships” for gays and the Constitutional Court
struck down a ban on adoption of children by members of same-sex
couples in June. Hungary permits civil unions, while Poland grants
very few rights. In a recent report by equal rights organization
ILGA-Europe, Poland was found to be one of the three worst EU
countries in which to be gay.
POLAND-VISEGRAD-EU-DIPLOMACY
Prime Ministers of
the Visegrad Group countries (L-R) Slovakia’s Robert Fico, Czech
Republic’s Bohuslav Sobotka, Poland’s Beata Szydło and Hungary’s
Viktor Orbán pose for a photo prior to their meeting in Warsaw on
July 21, 2016 | Janek Skarzynski/AFP via Getty Images
Poland is one of the
most religious countries in the world, the Czech Republic the least,
the other two are somewhere in the middle — although Orbán has
framed his anti-migrant crusade in terms of defending a Christian
civilization.
Historic memory and
national myths are also very different across the region. The Czechs
try not to think about it at all, politically incorrect nostalgia for
the collaborationist wartime regimes bubbles under the surface in
Hungary and Slovakia. Meanwhile, Poland’s Law and Justice builds a
national mythology of wartime anti-German resistance — feeding a
suspicion of today’s Germany as well.
There is also
dissonance over Russia. Poland is suspicious and the main driver of
getting a more-or-less permanent NATO presence in Central Europe.
Orbán has called for an end to EU sanctions against Russia, and
Russia is financing a nuclear power project in Hungary. Again,
Slovakia and the Czech Republic are somewhere in the middle.
With the EU (minus
the U.K.) set to gather in Bratislava, divisions within the V4 are at
least as evident as a purported divide between Eastern and Western EU
members.
“Without naming
things by their proper name, I don’t think we can surge forward
together,” Korčok said of the upcoming summit debate.
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