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In Hungary, a member of the European Union but isolated, the three faces of global populism will meet: Trump, Putin and Orbán. And the US president's "no-no mechanism" will be in play again.
The choice of the Hungarian capital as the venue for the summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin is a slap in the face of history and a symbolic wound for Ukraine. It was in the Danube city in 1994 that the Budapest Memorandum was signed, by which Kiev, having regained independence three years earlier, gave up its atomic bombs (1,900 nuclear warheads, a third of the entire Soviet nuclear arsenal) in exchange for guarantees of Russian sovereignty.
The Kremlin leader, who betrayed that solemn promise by launching the 2022 invasion, now returns to the stage of his false testimony alongside the American president, with his eager host, Viktor Orbán, happy to roll out the red carpet for them. But even in its announcement alone, the Hungarian summit has another meaning, even more serious and potentially fraught with consequences. It is a slap in the face to Europe, which in recent years has supported the existential struggle of the Ukrainian people and now finds itself marginalized again after the brief hiatus following the Anchorage summit in Alaska.
In Buda Castle, in fact, three faces of global nationalist populism will come together vividly: Putinism, Trumpism and European sovereignism. An authoritarian country isolated in the concert of Europe is brought back to the stage by Trump, who does not hide his contempt for the European Union, which was created, ipse dixit, "to destroy the United States". By offering Orbán the platform of a peace summit, he rewards his loyalty and, above all, betrays his intention to use the sovereignists as a means to undermine the common project. Instead, the White House chief of staff repeats the no-no mechanism towards the Russian leader, constantly threatening sanctions against Moscow and arms shipments to Kiev, most recently Tomahawk missiles, only to give up everything for nothing after a "productive" phone call. To paraphrase Rabelais, Trump defends his ideas "up to and including Putin". Why he does this remains a great mystery./Corriere della Sera
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