It’s high time for the European Union to deal with the one member-state that obviously doesn’t belong in the EU: Hungary.

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government rejects just about all the values and principles the EU stands for while remaining the recipient of European largesse. Hungary is getting a free ride.

Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union states that it "is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the member states in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.”

Orbán’s semi-authoritarian regime openly flouts freedom, democracy, the rule of law, minority rights, pluralism, tolerance and justice. It has repeatedly made it clear that it prefers the company of dictators such as Russia’s illegitimately elected president, Vladimir Putin, to that of the “degenerate West.”

Human rights watchdog Freedom House

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