Ondrej Soukup: I’m quite optimistic about the future of the European Union
15.09.2023
Ondrej Soukup
Recently, we see how populists have become more active all over the world, and in particular in the EU countries. Ondrej Soukup, who is a journalist at Czech Radio in Prague, told Newssky what the nearest prospect is for the European Union and whether it will withstand the onslaught of populists.
I’m quite optimistic about the future of the European Union because there is one fundamental reason. It’s economically profitable, and this is the name of the game. And of course, EU has got the populist leaders; let’s say in Hungary, Victor Orbán or Robert Fitco in Slovakia, talking about, exit from EU and playing some national cards, whatever. But the truth is that the European Union is a source of economic wealth and even these populist leaders, they understand that if they will leave EU or somehow damage it, it will also damage their future.
Because of course, let’s say Viktor Orbán can play, well, that ethnic Hungarians, somewhere in the Carpathians are subject to discrimination, and they should have some Hungarian schools or in Mukachevo or whatever. But it’s not why their voters cast their ballots for them.
They voted for them because they promised lower price for food or petrol, whatever.
Without the European Union, they couldn’t deliver. And they understand it because they see the example of Great Britain, which has suffered economically after Brexit and this is Great Britain, which is a very specific case that the country that it’s much more integrated into the world economy than let’s say Hungary. That’s why populists are very pragmatic by definition. Therefore I think that the future of EU is quite bright.
Maryna Kovalchuk, Newssky’s own correspondent (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland), head of the V5 Media project, and deputy editor-in-chief, contributed.
