Historian and Oxford University professor Timothy Garton Ash criticises Merkel

 

The EU's "outrageous state of affairs," says Timothy Garton Ash    By Euronews’ Brussels bureau  “It is absolutely outrageous that you have a member state of the European Union, which, in my view is no longer a democracy, which has destroyed media freedom, which doesn't have fair elections, free but not fair elections, which has kicked out the best university in Central Europe, which has indulged in outrageously xenophobic propaganda, which is still receiving billions of euros in EU funds. That's an outrageous state of affairs.” These are the words of Timothy Garton Ash, the award-winning historian and Oxford University professor, who sat down for an interview with Euronews at the House of European History in Brussels. Garton Ash has been a long-time, incisive commentator of European politics, having seen first-hand the most transformative events in the continent’s recent history, like the fall of the USSR, the creation of the euro, the 2004 enlargement, the Great Recession and now the coronavirus pandemic. But beyond the twin health and economic crises currently unraveling across the bloc, the professor thinks the EU is facing an even bigger test of democratic strength. And the root cause of this particular crisis doesn't come from the outside but from within its own ranks. “Viktor Orbán is having his cake and eating it. He is winning elections by saying stop Brussels, campaigning against the European Union, but taking billions of European taxpayers' money,” he told us. This ‘cakeism’ has resulted in EU values being “massively violated” in countries like Hungary and Poland, who have long been accused of democratic backsliding and political defiance. The Commission has opened numerous legal proceedings against both countries, without securing any real change. “The key to an effective response is to establish a linkage between the Europe of values and the Europe of money. And that's what the European Union has so far failed to do,” the professor said, in reference to a new mechanism that empowers Brussels to freeze and suspend payments of EU funds to countries suspected of breaching EU law. Nine months after its entry into force, the Commission is yet to activate the system, a delay that is raising political tensions in Brussels. For Garton Ash, the democratic threats are not confined to Budapest and Warsaw – they extend through Western Europe, too. Viktor Orbán “represents not just one medium-sized member state of the European Union. He represents a very important tendency in the entire European Union,” he remarks, pointing the finger at Italy’s Matteo Salvini, France’s Marine Le Pen, the Netherlands’ Geert Wilders and the UK’s Nigel Farage, all of whom have capitalised on the question of national sovereignty as a rallying cry against the EU institutions. The promise to reclaim power from Brussels was famously captured in the 'Take Back Control’ slogan chanted by Brexiteers during the 2016 referendum. “You have the honest stupidity of the Brits who have said we want more sovereignty and have left and the dishonest cleverness of Viktor Orbán's Hungary which speaks about having more sovereignty but stays in the EU because of all the benefits. So in a way, you know, the stupidity of the Brits in leaving is in a way more honest,” the professor quipped. As the debate around democratic values and rule of law intensifies in Brussels, a still-unknown character is poised to enter the conversation: the new German Chancellor. After sixteen years leading the country, Angela Merkel, usually described as the de facto leader of Europe, has decided to step down on her own terms. “It's the most extraordinary period of leadership,” Garton Ash says. “She personifies the best Germany we've ever had, civil, moderate, liberal, feminine, in all the positive senses. But there have been many sins of omission, starting with the failure to react decisively to the eurozone crisis, reforms that haven't happened both at home and abroad, the lack of an effective European foreign policy.” Until earlier this year, both Merkel and Orbán belonged to the same political family: the European People’s Party. This affiliation, critics claim, weakend Merkel’s resolution to challenge Orbán’s anti-EU rhetoric and controversial reforms. Garton Ash agrees and thinks Hungary could be in a different state today had the Chancellor dared stand up to the Prime Minister. “In every possible way [Merkel] personifies positive, liberal, liberal-conservative actually, European values, including her initial response to the refugee crisis,” he says. “On the other hand, if we ask why those values have been drastically eroded in Hungary, then the single European, West European politician most responsible is Angela Merkel because she actually, as the German chancellor, had the power to stop it and she hasn't used that power. So it's a mixed record.”