The EU is stoking the culture war between East and West

Other EU countries ‘should not interfere in the affairs of Hungary,’ Czech president Miloš Zeman said on Sunday in support of Viktor Orbán’s controversial new anti-LGBT reforms. As international condemnation of the country’s new LGBT law mounts, Zeman threw his weight behind the Hungarian prime minister, saying he ‘can see no reason to disagree with him’ in his stance on LGBT rights.

The Czech president’s words came as the latest blow in the EU’s increasingly bitter culture war between west and east, with blame for the confrontational environment being placed by Brussels on rebel nations such as Hungary and its Visegrád Four ally Poland. Yet the EU is, in fact, now reaping the whirlwind for having introduced a ‘rule of law’ budget instrument which aims to punish non-conformity with its own legal, ethical and cultural norms.

In December, the EU attached a rule of law mechanism to its pandemic recovery budget, making it possible for funds to be withheld from nations perceived to be violating the bloc’s core principles.