The Visegrád states as an anti-Ukraine bloc?
According to a report by the Politico news website, Hungary is planning to forge an anti-Ukrainian bloc in the European Union with the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The new Czech government has also said it wants to revitalise the cooperation between the four Visegrád states - although Poland has so far shown no interest in such plans. Could this be the birth of a pro-Russian lobby in the EU?
The three prime ministers are not in sync
Denník N sees too many differences of opinion within the proposed alliance:
“While Orbán constantly resorts to blackmail, Fico only barks and ultimately backs down when he's promised something the next time round, as was the case with the ban on Russian oil and gas imports and his blocking of anti-Russian sanctions. Babiš has not even begun to make threats, and observers in the Czech Republic assume that his anti-Western stance won't even reach the level of Fico's, let alone that of Orbán. ... The potential alliance will thus be a relatively fragmented and economically weak club of opportunist blackmailers and populist profiteers that operates on the fringes of the EU and is increasingly ignored by other members.”
Putin not popular in Prague
Russia's influence has its limits, especially in the Czech Republic, Slovak journalist Beata Balogová points out in hvg:
“It will be difficult for Visegrád to be used as Putin's antechamber. ... Babiš cannot completely ignore the tense relations between the Czech Republic and Russia, which have been strained for years by Russia's involvement in the bombing of the ammunition depot in Vrbětice in 2014. Of course, this does not mean that Babiš will willingly support joint EU action against the Russian aggressor, as he himself had previously expressed concerns that the West was being too harsh on Putin. But the Czechs are far more resistant to Russian influence than the Slovaks, for example.”
Lost without Poland
Český rozhlas sees little chance of the project succeeding:
“The idea that the Visegrád Group could function as a kind of Visegrád Troika is rather naive. Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia together have a smaller population than Poland. Without Poland's political clout, the Visegrád Group will have significantly less influence than it did when the migration crisis was at its peak after 2015 and it was able to block certain European initiatives on migration. The efforts of the new Czech government to move closer to Hungary and Slovakia, especially now that Hungary and Slovakia are seen as troublemakers and Russian fifth columns in the EU, can only hurt the Czech Republic.”