Weeks of farmers’ protests across Europe seem to have broken Brussels, with the European Commission making significant concessions to disgruntled farmers. However, quick symptomatic treatments will not resolve the deep-rooted problems of European agriculture.
Brussels recently unveiled its climate target, adjusted in the wake of the farmer protests. However, the ambitious plan is still founded on a flawed approach: the EU is prioritizing mitigation over adaptation, imposing a greater financial burden on member states than what is truly necessary.
An interview with US geopolitical analyst and Visiting Fellow at the Danube Institute Carlos Roa on the challenges of the EU, keystone states, the dangers of decoupling, and the ideological reading of the Russo–Ukrainian war.
Concerning press reports suggesting that an Italian defendant charged with participation in last year’s Antifa attacks is being held in demeaning conditions in a Budapest prison, Gulyás said all detention conditions meet European Union and Hungarian standards. Inmates are given three meals a day, he stressed, dismissing the claim that prison cells are rat-infested. He reminded that foreign inmates are also informed of prison rules in their mother tongue upon admission.
Similarly to the EU leadership, the Hungarian left tends to concentrate on issues of little concern for the people, and ignores the concerns of rural communities and farmers.
As tensions continue to grow in the wake of farmer demonstrations, agriculture is set to become a major issue across the EU ahead of the European Parliament elections in June, when the political right is expected to make significant strides toward a majority in the EP.
Hungarian Conservative is a quarterly magazine on contemporary political, philosophical and cultural issues from a conservative perspective.