Bernard-Henri Lévy expects harsh EU penalty for Hungary

The EU Commission will decide on Tuesday whether to take legal action against Hungary for violating the European treaties. Brussels should act resolutely to prevent others from following Hungary's example, demands French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy in the liberal-conservative daily Corriere della Sera: "In these times of economic and financial crisis in this very special moment when, if we listen to the demagogues, the very idea of Europe should be scrapped, I fear that the alarm applies not only to Hungary, but to the rest of the continent. ... In the Internet age, in this hour in which everyone communicates with everyone and where a Marine Le Pen can be linked, by a taut thread, to an extremist leader in Thuringia, Flanders, Northern Italy or, thus, to a Viktor Orbán, it is not inconceivable that an increasing number of individuals in Europe perceive in this Hungarian laboratory the actualization of their less and less secret plan: undo Europe, get rid of it and, at the same time, get rid of a corset of democratic rules judged, as during the 1930s, unsuitable in times of crisis. ... That is why we expect from Europe, and quickly, words of strong and unequivocal condemnation."

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