Mateusz Morawiecki discusses Tusk's relationship with EU
Britain's decision to leave the European Union (EU) has been further "vindicated", according to a senior Brexiteer, after it emerged last night that Brussels officials led by Ursula von der Leyen are planning yet another assault on democracy on the continent.
The Financial Times revealed that the European Commission has drawn up a plan to sabotage Hungary’s economy if Viktor Orbán blocks a 50 billion euro aid package to Ukraine this week.
A secret internal document lays out Budapest’s economic weaknesses and how to exploit them.
The row comes because the EU has withheld billions of euros in money due to Hungary for refusing to accept diktats from Brussels and allowing von der Leyen's bureaucratic regime to interfere in its domestic politics.
And today the Hungarian government confirmed that it was under assault from Brussels in what is being described as a "declaration of economic war".
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READ MORE: Former Polish PM warns EU will 'implode' over Brussels power grab
The EU is apparently trying to bring down Viktor Orban's government (Image: Getty)
Balazs Orban, the Hungarian Prime Minister's political director, said: "Brussels is using blackmail against Hungary like there’s no tomorrow, despite the fact that we have proposed a compromise.
"Budapest sent a new proposal to Brussels on Saturday, specifying it was now open to using the EU budget for the Ukraine package and even issuing common debt to finance it, if other caveats were added that gave Budapest the opportunity to change its mind at a later date.
"Now it’s crystal clear: this is blackmail and has nothing to do with the rule of law. And now they’re not even trying to hide it! Whatever happens, change is needed in Brussels!"
The row has echoes of recent events in Poland where the EU deliberately withheld funds and promoted the coalition led by former European Council President Donald Tusk in the election late last year.
It helped Mr Tusk's pro-EU federalist coalition win a narrow majority over the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS). Since then Tusk has agreed to hand more power to a centralised Brussels bureaucracy, dismantled the state media and seen two opposition MPs arrested who had been working on the anti-corruption unit.
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Donald Tusk has had opposition politicians arrested and attacked the free media in Poland (Image: Getty)
Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told Express.co.uk: "Now I understand Brexit."
Former Conservative MEP David Campbell Bannerman, a leading Brexiteer, told Express.co.uk that the political events in Europe have "further vindicated Brexit."
He said: "This is the first time I have called the EU 'nasty' in a tweet. But things are becoming nasty."
Former Brexit Party MEP Ben Habib, now Reform UK's candidate in the Wellingborough by-election, added: "The EU’s treatment of Hungary proves it is anti-democratic. To strip a member state of its right to vote, the slimmest of democratic representation member states have, is in effect the subjugation of Hungary.
"Hungary would have only one option if the EU went ahead as it has threatened. That would be to leave the EU. Every day that passes I realise how proud we should be of the British people recognising the EU for what it is and voting to leave.
"We still have a Parliament which is pro-EU and in contempt of the nation. But we can get rid of them. That is why Reform UK exists. And that is why the great British people must once again vote for change!"
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Sovereignty, an online platform for Polish conservatives, noted that the EU had first used the same economic tactics to remove the government in Italy.
In a social media post on X, it said: "It looks like Brussels wants to repeat with Hungary the operation that led to the ousting of Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi in 2011, through coordinated attacks on Italian bonds, so that he could be replaced by a Eurocrat."
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Meanwhile, the British Bruges Group of Eurosceptics warned that what is happening is in effect "all-out war" which targets governments that protect national sovereignty and resist the EU's power grab.
In a post on X, it said: "Last year, the EU withheld funds from Poland to force a change of government. Now, its officials are preparing an all-out economic war against Hungary. The countries of Central and Eastern Europe find themselves the victims in an increasingly abusive relationship with Brussels."
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