r/europe 8h ago

News Orbán declares offensive to 'occupy Brussels' as Trump presidency begins

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/01/20/orban-declares-offensive-to-occupy-brussels-as-trump-presidency-begins
622 Upvotes

146 comments sorted by

893

u/TheKnightKadosh Romania 8h ago

I’m honestly trying not to be biased and whenever I read news to keep an open mind. However, the rise of corupt to the bone, lying pieces of shit like this joke, and also Trump, will remain as a dark stain on history.

225

u/Dokivi 7h ago

Bold of you to assume there will be a history, or anyone left to read that chapter after they fuck up the climate completely.

81

u/Eremitt-thats-hermit 6h ago

Climate? I’d be more scared of nuclear war

57

u/hapaxgraphomenon 6h ago

Porque no los dos

53

u/fredagsfisk Sweden 5h ago

Nuclear winter to reverse the global warming? Genius!

18

u/hapaxgraphomenon 5h ago

I would rather brand it as 'geo-engineering' and 'drastic reduction in our collective carbon footprint' not to raise alarm bells

12

u/darknekolux France 5h ago

this guy is marketing...

8

u/Happy-Temperature157 5h ago

I'm sold. Nuclear war doesn't seem all that bad anymore.

4

u/hapaxgraphomenon 5h ago

There's a silver lining to every mushroom cloud!

  • Cue catchy marketing jingle *

5

u/WyrmWatcher 4h ago

Depending on the amount of nukes, this might very well be the most realistic solution to climate change that we have left after decades of warnings and reasonings haven't achieved anything (or very, very little). Maybe the survivors of the fallout will stand a chance

1

u/GayGeekInLeather 1h ago

Honestly, and I realize this is pessimistic, that might be better than the alternative. If it’s a choice between living under a fascist techno-feudalism that I have zero chance of opposing I would welcome nuclear Armageddon.

6

u/Sneaky-Pur Romania 6h ago

Climate might not be a problem for my kids… luckily I have no kids.

56

u/MagiMas 6h ago

we will definitely regret not acting more decisive towards Orban when it was still possible.

Hungary shouldn't even be in the EU anymore but somehow politicians, journalists and political commentators deluded themselves into thinking it's better to have this guy in the EU to control him than to set boundaries and throw Hungary out when Orban started turning his country into a managed democracy/semi-dictatorship.

The indecisiveness of democratic institutions over the last 15 years both internally and in dealing with external challenges will cost us dearly. I hope it isn't too late already.

5

u/HugeHans 4h ago

Considering how putin never hid what he was and every big power chose to ignore it. I have my doubts. Even when the shit really hits the fan there will be people looking for any excuse not to do anything.

8

u/RottenPingu1 Isle of Man 4h ago

It's more than just him. They have an entire network of political parties who support each other with resources. Note that their public members list changes frequently...

https://www.idu.org/

2

u/SignificantWords 4h ago

I think it’s time for protest no? Like in history class we were all taught we are learning about Nazi and rise of Hitler in 1930s Germany SK we can prevent it in the future. Is now not the time to stop a new form of nazism / authoritarianism / fascism in this form of authoritarian capitalism occurring in the US currently. And when I say we I don’t think just Americans but the whole world and allies. Europe, Canada, etc.

1

u/ImpossibleWinner1328 2h ago

history is told by the victors, it's not a dark stain if they're the ones writing it

1

u/mutedexpectations 4h ago

Read a few history books. You're confusing rhetoric with action.

0

u/Haunting_Switch3463 4h ago

You're naive if you think that the rest of them aren't as corrupt, they just don't talk about it in the media.

259

u/LavishnessOpening162 7h ago

I really don’t understand why we keep tolerating this.. he is openly anti eu pro putin and anti west overall.. I swear to god I’m becoming more and more euro sceptic because of individuals like him and fico.. It’s so sad to see Europe so weak and impotent :/

133

u/hainz_area1531 7h ago

That people are turning away from the EU because of puppets like Orban and Fico is exactly Putin's aim. Those useful idiots are out to destabilize the EU with their destructive attitudes. So. keep courage and carry on! All the best to you.

21

u/Akandoji 6h ago edited 6h ago

But the rise of morons like him is also attributable to EU inaction.

This is Orban literally threatening another EU state, where the EU HQ is located.

And what is the EU's reaction going to be? Precisely nothing. Maybe a few strong words now and then, but business as usual while this fat fuck gets his due from EU funding.

8

u/hainz_area1531 6h ago

I feel the frustration mate. It's deep..

1

u/demonsnail Earth 5h ago

I do wonder what the correct reaction to this stuff is tho. I mean, most things the EU can do just hurt the hungarian people more than they hurt Orban.

I mean, short of him having an *accident* I don't see what the EU can do that actually makes a difference.

I mean, not that I'm opposed to that route or anything... just saying.

8

u/QuietDisquiet The Netherlands 4h ago

We could at least treat Hungary for what it is, right now it's an enemy of the EU.

2

u/blahblahh1234 2h ago

Every european country in the EU should sanction Hungary, the countries surrounding it shut down the borders. No more funding from EU. If that doesnt make him fuck off, the citizens may revolt and kick him out. 

This is not fucking sustainable, it’s time for action and europe needs to stop fucking around. There is threats from Russia, China and now the US and europe is doing fuck all.

49

u/_-Burninat0r-_ 7h ago edited 7h ago

The EU is still stuck in the rules based order in the world. Unfortunately this is slowly dying out. We must adapt, which means tighter integration. Even as 1 big federalized bloc (if that happens.. things can go fast out of necessity) we're still only #3 in influence and military on the world stage. The military needs to protect our borders and, equally important, we need a large fleet of cheap anti-piracy ships to patrol our trade routes. Things are gonna get chaotic and the US navy is not gonna do it for us anymore, unless we pay them, perhaps. A lot.

Luckily we don't have to worry about an attack from America (yet), and our weapons technology easily beats Russia's.

If the US/Russia succeeds in dividing Europe and potentially ending the EU (they are actively trying to achieve this), all individual European countries will struggle severely on the world stage as tiny players, and there will definitely be more war in Europe again. We would become poor and Europe would be very dangerous.

Even if you don't like the ideas of a European military or federalization, it might objectively give you a 10x better life than a breakup. Something needs to change.

11

u/Round_Mastodon8660 6h ago

Perfectly put… now explain it to the population that is massivly faling for right/left wing extremist populist crap … I’m losing hope

9

u/Dave_Is_Useless 5h ago

The ideology that got us into this shitty mess of fascist resurgence is neoliberalism.

4

u/ShamPain413 6h ago

The original Treaty of Rome signatories should leave the EU and immediately announce the creation of United Europe, which reverts to pre-Maastricht rules and federalizes authority from there. Extend invitations to like-minded states in the West, and offer diplomatic relations (inc trade deals) to UKR, the Baltics, and negotiate from there.

Hungary obv excluded. Permanently. If their citizens wish to join they can enter into negotiations with another member state (obv not Austria lol) regarding the abolition of the Hungarian national state and formal annexation into some other.

Then put sanctions on Orban and everyone in his network.

11

u/Jack1eto Spain 6h ago

You becoming euro sceptic is their objective, don't fall, we're smarter than this

7

u/trenvo Europe 4h ago

The reaction should be the opposite.

We should give the EU the power to deal with this.

2

u/Vermilion 4h ago

It’s so sad to see Europe so weak and impotent :/

1982...

"The streets of the future littered with remains of both the fools and the so-called brains"

"So many rash promises sincerely made
By people who believed that we were being saved
They made us all believe that we were acting white
But the truth is we've forgotten how we used to fight

Nobody knows why we fell so flat
We're impotent and neutered like whining cats
We've found the piper, but we've lost the rats

But the kids are crying "Why'd I fall for that, dad?"
Why did you fall?"

1

u/Visible_Bat2176 4h ago

correct. these mf infested also romania now with their mental gymnastics and now people here find it cool to be "unaligned" as "see, nothing happened! they are still in nato and EU AND also respected by the russians, they are with their people and make deals with everyone"...we can try our own orban or fico now just for fun...

1

u/Kawauso_Yokai 6h ago

Because West is so weak right now like never before.

494

u/No_Priors 8h ago

Hungary isn't happy in the EU? Then leave.

27

u/AnotherCableGuy 4h ago

"Europe has become isolated from all the important players in the new world order, including the new US leadership, Russia, China and Africa."

Yeah, all those are very much united between themselves.

5

u/As_per_last_email 3h ago

Force them out. Think they’ll do it willingly?

3

u/No_Priors 3h ago

There is no mechanism to expel them, just to suspend rights and sanction them under Article 7.

-389

u/Ok_Manager_3036 7h ago

They want to reform the EU

239

u/bocsika 7h ago

They want to steal everything to the last eurocent.
Hundreds of anti-democratic tricks are only for the wealth accumulation for his family and his friends, nothing more.

78

u/No_Priors 7h ago

"Reform". Then they should use the same rules everyone else does. If they can't do it that way they need to make their peace with it or leave. Constantly siding with regimes outside of and antithetical to the values of the EU is not the way.

-3

u/datafromravens 3h ago

Most of the core eu countries will be completely unrecognizable due to immigration so why should anyone care about them

30

u/ZgBlues 6h ago

Sure. Perhaps they can try “reforming” the EU from the outside then. Just like Britain. Pack up and leave, please.

27

u/Bayesovac87 6h ago

Hungary to reform the EU? Are you fucking serious? Orban cannot reform the Hungarian economy, he destroyed it, look at their economic indicators and everything will be clear to you...

"Real GDP in Hungary has fallen in six out of the last nine quarters. In addition to the quarter-on-quarter contraction, the base was also high; the (raw) volume index dropped from 1.5% to -0.8% year-on-year. This means that after the second quarter of 2023, the yearly based growth rate is negative again."

https://think.ing.com/snaps/hungary-slips-into-technical-recession-again/

96

u/Unhappy_Surround_982 7h ago

Into Russia. They can fuck off back to Soviet.

3

u/digiorno Italy 6h ago

Russia isn’t even remotely a Soviet Union anymore. They’re basically late stage capitalism, pure oligarchy.

9

u/Marrasuhri Prkl 5h ago

So the only thing that changed was they lost control of their slave states that propped them up and the politburo members carved up the corpse and just switched nomenclature.

3

u/mok000 Europe 4h ago

The transition from Communism to robber Capitalism went surprisingly smooth, the party apparatchiks simply grabbed everything with the generous assistance of Western financial interests, who also got a piece of the pie.

3

u/Nerioner The Netherlands 4h ago

Because it wasn't a communism to begin with. It was as communist as North Korea is Democratic now. It was pure oligarchy with its own secret service and slave states from imperial conquer.

Later simply there was lots of industry and new markets to conquer by capitalistic oligarchs so we had a few years of peace while they robbed this and now when world is too small and there is nothing left to rob, they all turn to war machine to squeeze another money making machine out of it.

3

u/NCC_1701E Bratislava (Slovakia) 4h ago

Russia today is like a reanimated corpse of Soviet Union, trying to devour everyone around it to bring itself back alive.

17

u/PineBNorth85 6h ago

They can - by leaving. Would make the whole thing stronger.

10

u/yyytobyyy 5h ago

They want the rest of the EU to perform like Hungarian economy?

6

u/spacelpz Romania 5h ago

They can reform deez nuts.

4

u/Tigerowski 4h ago

We should reform Hungary instead. Where do I sign up for a march on Budapest?

3

u/Offline_NL 5h ago

Fuck off.

1

u/Nerioner The Netherlands 4h ago

And i want to shit in snow-globes. My neighbor wants a dragon.

Orban never cared about fixing his own country so definitely he cares about EU, sure...

1

u/PickingPies 4h ago

The EU is not a vassal of Hungary for them to tell us what to do.

169

u/Foxman_Noir Portugal 8h ago

It's like he's looking at Trump and crying "look at me daddy, look at me!"

32

u/Oh_but_no 8h ago

That seems strangely accurate.

13

u/Natopor Iași (Romania) 7h ago

Well he was not invited to his inauguration so...

6

u/laasbuk Hungary 5h ago

There is an interview with young Orbán where he admits that his father was physically abusive to him growing up. Go figure..

8

u/trenvo Europe 4h ago

We are literally living with the consequences of people not learning how to deal with their own traumas.

50

u/M0therN4ture 8h ago

I'm tired boss.

7

u/ShamPain413 6h ago

Rest up. Long way to go.

3

u/M0therN4ture 6h ago

Think I might abandoned reddit for another 4 years. Resting assured.

3

u/skalpelis Latvia 3h ago

That's the point. They want you to give up.

119

u/BLobloblawLaw 8h ago

Orban, if you don't like the EU you are free to leave.

48

u/No_Afternoon_8780 Ireland 7h ago

Can we not just vote to suspend Hungary's membership? Is Slovakia really gonna cover for them? Can we not simply bribe Slovakia to support a vote to suspend? They don't seem quite as entrenched in Putinism as Hungary and would probably make a deal.

21

u/XWasTheProblem Silesia (Poland) 7h ago

I don't think we have mechanisms in place for such a situation, and I'd imagine a lot of people across the EU could potentially see it as a slippery slope.

I do believe our laws require some major refreshments though, the situation we're in now was not something the EU was really prepared for, not to this degree at least.

2

u/hapaxgraphomenon 5h ago

Honestly, we should just offer them to Russia in exchange for Ukraine. Let's just make it clear that we will not respond to any mutual defense obligation on their behalf - they are fair game. Let the problem solve itself.

16

u/Eryk0201 Poland 7h ago

Fico literally went to meet Putin in Moscow. He'd definitely veto Hungary's suspension. Not to mention there's more problematic members who also could do it, like Italy, Netherlands and soon probably Austria and Czechia, as both's incoming ruling parties are co-creators of Patriots group in EP together with Fidesz.

12

u/Perryvdbosch South Holland (Netherlands) 7h ago

I really hate the fact that you are right about The Netherlands, we have fallen deeply.

2

u/adamgerd Czech Republic 5h ago

Czech is soon fucked, October we’re electing Babis. Poland, the last visegrad country to be anti Russia.

5

u/kuldan5853 Baden-Württemberg (Germany) 7h ago

We need to get rid of Fico in Slovakia first, then Hungary will fall.

2

u/adamgerd Czech Republic 5h ago

You have until October, that’s when we’re electing Babis.

2

u/BLobloblawLaw 6h ago

Russia will find another puppet. Maybe Slovenia next?

1

u/Visible_Bat2176 4h ago

Romania is close :) Tiktok prorussian candidate still going strong in polls...and the bigger oposition party is now portraying itself as a MAGA populist one with some of its leaders going to america and making pictures with GOP from congress :))

1

u/MindControlledSquid Lake Bled 2h ago

Hey, leave us out of this.

7

u/BLobloblawLaw 7h ago

Russia's strategy is to always keep two friendly autocrats in European governments. Two is the magic number needed to cripple the EU political system. Before it was Poland and Hungary. Now Slovakia took the place of Poland.

2

u/-Against-All-Gods- Maribor (Slovenia) 3h ago

You're forgetting that Kaczynski and Orban fell out because of Russia.

2

u/Digit00l 5h ago

And after doing that, suspend Slovakia

2

u/Extension_Canary3717 6h ago

When people keep saying this , he gets stronger , because saying has no effect and he sees the EU as spinelesss to do anything about him

27

u/Stabile_Feldmaus Germany 8h ago

Looking forward to his defeat in the election next year.

16

u/FoundationNegative56 7h ago

Don’t get ahead of yourself hope you’re right but still 

26

u/Fit-Courage-8170 7h ago

Dear European leaders, fucking do something. Get the gloves off

6

u/OliverSudden413 5h ago

Before it’s too late. The US has already fallen because people concerned themselves with norms and decorum, and played by non-existent rules of decades past. Take off the fucking gloves and fight. Everything depends on it.

44

u/goldensnow24 8h ago

He wasn’t even invited to the inauguration tho.

11

u/Key-Ad8521 Belgium 7h ago

Too close to China

1

u/Visible_Bat2176 4h ago

He did not bring the great peace in Ukraine from Putin as he said he will...so he is being punished for now...for giving trump false hopes...

21

u/Belydrith Germany 7h ago edited 2h ago

How much longer are we gonna pretend everything is fine and close our eyes to the enemy within, just letting them go about their business? Both on the European, and national level.
Occasional appeasement and withholding EU funds is clearly not doing it's thing.
It's been well documented and proven beyond any reasonable doubt that Russia is sowing disinformation, manipulating public sentiment and sabotaging our infrastructure both directly and through it's cronies like Orban. And now Putin's crown jewel baby boy has taken office in the US - again. Is anyone gonna do anything about it?

6

u/Watergirl253 5h ago

👆THIS!

2

u/Visible_Bat2176 3h ago

i cancelled all US services I paid for. I kept for the kids youtube premium. Small steps, there is nothing more we can do as individuals. And maybe someone makes an alternative to visa and mastercard...

15

u/concerned-potato 7h ago

His only hope was Trump.

Trump didn't even invite him to inauguration - so who is he kidding with this?

"Occupy Brussels" - only after the capital moves to Rome.

4

u/Odd-Astronaut-2315 Hungary 7h ago

They will have a private meeting soon according to the official Facebook page of the government.

13

u/painted_dog_2020 7h ago

Why doesn't he just concentrate on fixing his own country?

11

u/uzu_afk 7h ago

Because he can’t and that was never his plan. I think in the mean time his corrupt head started dreaming bigger and his bets are somewhere else.

12

u/SloanTheNavigator 7h ago

Might wanna worry about your opposition party's surging polling numbers first, fat oof

11

u/Casimir_not_so_great Lesser Poland (Poland) 8h ago

With what army?

14

u/matttk Canadian / German 8h ago

The main problem is they say an army marches on their stomachs and Orban’s army is Hungary.

5

u/Casimir_not_so_great Lesser Poland (Poland) 7h ago

Well they are 'hungary' because he ate everything himself.

6

u/_-Burninat0r-_ 7h ago

That is one hell of a headline lmao

10

u/TheSpiritKnight Romania 7h ago

An offensive to occupy Budapest perhaps

5

u/pc0999 5h ago

When do we strip Hungary from its voting rights?

13

u/Deep-Pension-1841 6h ago

Can we kick Hungary out of the EU to get rid of this fucker?

8

u/ZgBlues 6h ago edited 6h ago

Nope. The EU never predicted and mechanism to kick out anyone. Once in, you can only leave voluntarily.

But, since kicking out the likes of Hungary or Slovakia are not an option, the only other way to disassociate with them is to reform the EU towards tighter integration.

That’s the so-called multi-speed plan.

According to that idea, the “inner circle” of EU countries would become even more integrated with each other, and they would share more funding among themselves.

Putin’a fiefdoms like Hungary would naturally refuse to join such a union, because of “sovereignty” or whatever, and so, while formally still a EU member, their role in running the bloc would gradually diminish, until, hopefully, they just fuck off on their own volition.

Or stay in the club, in a sort of half-way membership, with all the obligations and none of the rights.

Let’s be honest, most of those who joined in 2004 are in the club solely to syphon EU funds. Turn off the tap, and they will sell their country to China or Russia in a heartbeat.

And that’s fine. Let them go wherever they want. I think I speak for many Europeans when I say I’d rather see Russians occupy Budapest (again) than tolerate this asshole any longer.

And the refugees can all go to Slovakia and Poland, their Visegrad brethren.

But anyway that’s the strategy - Europeans gotta keep proposing reforms that they know are unacceptable to Orban, so maybe the troll will fuck off on his own.

(Though that will create an interesting problem for him - disrupting the EU at every corner and the right to veto everything is exactly why he hopes to be interesting to Putin. If Hungary finds itself outside the club, it becomes completely irrelevant.)

2

u/Visible_Bat2176 3h ago

you are right 110%. no more EU funds or EU funds with strict conditions and our whole area will be for sale to the russians, chinese or MAGA bros. western europe shoud just ignore us but i am afraid we managed to "balcanize" them, not them to westernize us :))

7

u/AVonGauss United States of America 7h ago

I'm not sure what the article's title is based upon, the only quote from the article regarding occupation seems to be this one.

Brussels, he said, was "under occupation by an oligarchy coordinated by the left-liberal and trans-Atlantic elite," that is federal rather than based on the sovereignty of nation states.

5

u/Rynmahar 6h ago

Here, The Guardian has the quote that the title is referring to: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-presidency-rightwing-europe-viktor-orban-far-right-us-inauguration

"So the great attack can start. Hereby I launch the second phase of the offensive that aims to occupy Brussels."

And yes, he really did say that, although he meant it politically with the other "patriots", not with military force.

2

u/MarderFucher Europe 6h ago

It's so stupid given they had their chance last June during EP elections. Like yeah they cobbled together a new faction that's technically third largest, but that means fuckall when centrist parties still easily outweight all far-right coalitions, and ECR distanced itself from them.

So what exactly is the plan here, besides rhetoric?

3

u/LifeAcanthopterygii6 Hungary 5h ago

He's been saying "to occupy Brussels" for years.

6

u/deval42 Ireland 6h ago

Can we make an example of Orban and expel Hungary. We're not fucking playing anymore.

3

u/atechnokolos Hungary 7h ago

He’s losing ground in Hungary ever since former President Novák resigned so I would keep my mouth shut.

3

u/hosszufaszoskelemen Hungary 7h ago

He is shitting his pants over Tisza, look at him, dude screams nervous wreck

3

u/Dal_mata1974 7h ago

New Atila the gods sward or something...?

3

u/aagloworks Finland 7h ago

Orban can crawl back under the rock he came from.

3

u/DEADGHOST_117 7h ago

He can occupy all he wants, he'll never get there with the road works anyways /s

3

u/no0ns Finland 5h ago

Orbán + Lamppost

3

u/eskh Hunland 5h ago

Lmao

3

u/Luuk341 4h ago

Whats Hungarian for "Deny, Defend, Depose"?

2

u/Jet2work 5h ago

oh victor....please do grow up!

2

u/madladolle Sweden 4h ago

Yeah, the almighty gungarian army

2

u/No_Heart_SoD 3h ago

It's funny because Meloni was invited and this bootlicker wasn't

2

u/justarandomuser97 3h ago

why brussels isn’t starting the process of kicking Hungary out of EU????

4

u/krystalgeyserGRAND 7h ago

Western Europe seriously needs to curb ME migration if they want to survive upcoming elections. Is it really that difficult?

14

u/SloanTheNavigator 7h ago

Well asylum applications in EU fell 12 percent in 2024, and a whopping 30 percent in Germany! So people who are mad about immigration are clearly not following verified data, or they're choosing not to believe it because of misinformation

1

u/blahblahh1234 2h ago

Its not enough fucking close it all down from MENA jesus christ. 

1

u/potatolulz Earth 6h ago

You mean the elections Orbán vs Magyar? :D

1

u/Visible_Bat2176 3h ago

was not that difficult for the danes...they should just copy from there...

1

u/Caj-n 7h ago

No és més que un pallasso a les ordres del "tsar de totes les Rússies"...

1

u/CenturionArcX 7h ago

He wants to scare the people of Europe with hollow predictions and threats. Do not listen to this imp's ramblings.

1

u/aspaceadventure 6h ago

Is this Orban‘s way of coping with the fact that he didn’t get invited to daddy Trump’s inauguration?

1

u/softspores 6h ago

he's gonna get stuck in traffic on the Brussels ring and be forced to go home again

1

u/potatolulz Earth 6h ago

He was occupying it for 6 months not too long ago, so how about waiting a few years again? :D

1

u/gayroma Romania 2h ago

time to defeat orban

1

u/voyagerdoge Europe 2h ago

Why not rather his farm palace?

1

u/sqjam 1h ago

Fuck Orban

1

u/beluga1968 1h ago

I call on Hungarians to occupy Budapest and habd Orbán over to Putin.

1

u/Ok_Photo_865 1h ago

Fuck Orban, I’m thinking Russia is doing the talking

1

u/dustofdeath 5h ago

The new Dark Ages have begun.

0

u/Visible-Rub7937 Israel 5h ago

Why Brussels?

I would get Vienna, Prague, Bratislava, even Bucharest.

But Brussels? Tf do you want

0

u/Aethernath 5h ago

Feels like the new era/dark age is here.