The Gadflies of Europe: Poland and Hungary
As its motto implies, The European Union strives to be “United in Diversity”, and in the past few years, these hopes have met with reality. In the past decade, the EU has been continually stress-tested, starting with Greece's debt crisis in 2008, putting the European Central Bank and the Euro on trial. Then in 2015, the United Kingdom's historic referendum on Brexit, which hung on the balance of an infamously tight vote, captured the world's attention. But even while the next steps of Brexit remain unclear, the European Union is being forced to reckon with an entirely new problem posed by two members: Poland and Hungary.
The differences between Poland and Hungary in relation to other member states regarding the EU’s core values, including democracy and freedom, poses challenges for the EU’s unison. Thus, Poland and Hungary often receive criticism from the broader European community. Relations between the EU and the two ex-communist states have been rocky for at least the past few years. The two countries share a kinship in their strongman leaders and increasingly power-hungry right-wing party leadership along with their eurosceptic views, which places them in a similar position against the EU. For the past decade, Hungary's Viktor Orban regularly faces condemnation from other leading European politicians on his illiberal rule of law. According to Freedom House, an American think tank, Hungary can no longer be referred to as a democracy. Similarly, just earlier this year, the European Commission opened a legal case against Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party led by Jarosław Kaczyński for an attempted judicial reform proposal, which the Commission claimed aimed to "muzzle judges".
More recently, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the fundamental differences between these Central European figures and their Western counterparts have become more apparent. Hungary's President Viktor Orban used the country's state of emergency to grant himself the unique ability to rule by decree. The European Parliament deemed Orban's actions "totally incompatible with European values" by a 395 to 171 vote.
Meanwhile, the second round of Polish elections occurs in the coming months with in-person voting procedures, which has raised concerns regarding public health and democratic fairness. The outcome of the upcoming polish election could foreshadow the future of Europe’s East-West divide. The incumbent President of Poland and ally of PiS, Andrzej Duda, playing the familiar role of the illiberal strongman leader, faces a surprisingly formidable adversary: Rafal Trzaskowski, who is the current mayor of Warsaw. Trzaskowski, who earned second-place behind Duda in the first round of the election with 30.3% of the vote, has framed himself as the pro-European progressive antidote to Poland’s Law and Justice clique. Though speculation often deceives, if Trzaskowski were to win the election, the conditional veto powers given to the President of Poland may find its place in the hands of an individual that is seemingly committed to acting as the counterbalance to the Polish status quo.
However, while all of these incidents may make Poland and Hungary seem like poor fits for the European Union, both Orban and Kaczyński have been quick to stomp out any rumors of a potential exit of their respective countries. Instead, the two leaders have opted to undermine the European order from the inside. By doing so, they have placed themselves in a unique position. Although unhappy with the state of affairs of the EU, Poland and Hungary have made it clear that they wish to neither leave nor lead the EU.
Upon upsetting the status quo and those in the position of power, Socrates once proclaimed himself as the "gadfly" of Ancient Greece. He buzzed around the leaders of Athens, acting much like a real gadfly that irritates livestock with its bites. Orban and Kaczyński are the gadflies of the modern-day EU. Unlike Greece or the United Kingdom, which had straightforward motives and outcomes to their disputes with the EU, things are not so clear with Poland and Hungary. Though a desire to "protect European values" is the line often used by both countries when pressed on their actions that go against EU consensus, it often feels as though this is a thin veneer to hide a much more real desire to undercut and subvert. While the actual objective behind this behavior is debatable, one thing is certain, if getting on the nerves of Europe's leaders is the goal, Poland and Hungary have been doing an outstanding job.