Culture Society, Identity and Belonging
EU leaders meet in Brussels tomorrow to try and secure a €50 billion, four-year support package for Ukraine. The block: Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, who is holding out despite reported EU plans to hit Hungary’s economy with a stick unless Orbán drops his veto. Another key number in play: 75,000, the number of ethnic Hungarians living in western Ukraine. Orbán, a close Putin ally, has used Ukraine’s treatment of this minority group to justify his antagonism towards Kyiv. For example, Ukraine passed a law in 2017 limiting the use of other languages in its schools – something aimed at countering Russian influence but which angered its Hungarian, Romanian and Bulgarian minorities, reports AP. It amended this law in December to restore many language rights demanded by Budapest, but Hungary’s government may want more.