As a conservative person—and, in addition, as a Hungarian conservative—the European Union did not seem like the right place for me for a long time. I would say since 2015, because that was when I began to pay more attention to politics, not unrelated to the fact that the European Union had reached a crossroads at the time.
In 2015, there were two entirely different solutions on the table for European countries to address the issue of the millions of Muslim migrants at their borders, fleeing persecution in their homelands or simply seeking a better life in the economically and socially more developed European Union. We are familiar with the two policies and with what the majority of EU member states ultimately chose. One was the so-called Willkommenskultur and open-border policy advocated by former German Chancellor Angela Merkel; the other was Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s hardline stance on migration, border protection and zero tolerance. The majority of the EU chose the former.
Now, ten years later, we are familiar with the consequences of that decision. The integration of migrants has failed, as shown by the emergence of parallel societies in Western metropolises, which in turn has driven rising crime rates—not to mention the constant terror threat that instills fear amongst European citizens. Mass migration also places immense pressure on social-welfare systems, which are already crumbling under declining birth rates. If current trends continue, European civilization, culture, identity and democracy as we know them will cease to exist within a foreseeable period of time.
Hungary kept warning the rest of Europe, but for a long time it was a lone voice, as right-wing, patriotic forces were only just beginning to take shape. US President Donald Trump began his first term across the Atlantic in 2016, but he was largely entangled in domestic affairs at the time. Meanwhile, EU elites became increasingly arrogant, ignorant and intolerant of dissent. After the Democrats returned to power in 2020, these tendencies intensified, and Brussels began pushing policies that contradicted the interests of its own citizens in multiple areas—from green transition and competitiveness to agriculture and even the war in Ukraine.
Unanswered Wake Up Call
When Trump was re-elected with a landslide, winning the popular vote by two million, EU elites were in complete shock. Not only because they had spent years criticizing, smearing and demonizing him, but because they knew that his second presidency would be far more focused on foreign policy than the first one—and that this would inevitably carry a degree of retribution.
Right after taking office, the Trump administration’s crusade began. Yet for every neutral observer, it was clear that this was nowhere near an act of vengeance; rather, it was a form of ‘eye-opener’ campaign. The Trump administration wanted—and still wants—the EU establishment to realize how its flawed policies are destroying the fabric of Western civilization.
Washington does not want to push Europe down. It wants Europe to stand up for itself, so that it may remain the United States’ number-one civilizational ally. It wants Europe to defend their shared values: Christianity, democracy, freedom of speech. To protect its borders. To strengthen its defences so that transatlantic relations can become more balanced in the future than they are today.
Trump’s new National Security Strategy—framed as an attack on Europe by EU elites—explicitly recognizes Europe’s economic and structural strengths, as well as the extent to which America’s partnership with much of the continent has benefitted the United States. ‘Not only can we not afford to write Europe off—doing so would be self-defeating for what this strategy aims to achieve,’ it states. ‘Our goal should be to help Europe correct its current trajectory.’
When Trump denounces EU leaders as ‘weak’ and calls Western European countries ‘decaying nations’, he is not delivering an attack on Europe—certainly not on European citizens. He is stating a harsh truth: the policies of the globalist elite have failed Europe, and increasing EU centralization has weakened nation-states to the point where they cannot tackle the challenges facing them. Trump is saying what the European right has been saying for quite some time: if the current trajectory continues, Europe’s influence in international affairs will decline to virtually zero.
Going Down on the Same Path
Unsurprisingly, EU elites did not take the US warnings as constructive advice. On the contrary, they reacted with offence and doubled down on the same flawed policies. European Council President António Costa called the NSS an ‘unacceptable threat of interference’, demanding ‘respect’ for European leaders. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz likewise called Trump’s warning ‘unacceptable’, questioning the future direction of the transatlantic alliance.
Meanwhile, on 8 December, the Council of the European Union announced the first so-called ‘Solidarity Pool’ for 2026 under the new EU Migration Pact. Under this scheme, member states are obliged to accept 21,000 asylum seekers or pay EUR 420 million in contribution.
‘Brussels does not care about civilizational suicide; instead, it is dragging member states down with itself’
In other words, under the guise of a new pact, the EU is continuing its already failed migration policy and pushing member states to accept migrant quotas. Brussels does not care about civilizational suicide; instead, it is dragging member states down with itself, including countries like Hungary, which has defended its borders and its people since 2015.
Despite Washington’s cautious warnings, EU elites will not change—that much is now evident. Instead, they are accelerating along the same downward trajectory. In doing so, they are undermining the one remaining alliance that could anchor them in an increasingly volatile and shifting global order—an alliance without which Europe’s economic and diplomatic power will only continue to diminish.
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