The EU's Hungary headache - and a whiff of double standards

Charles Grant, director of the CER, said the EU could suspend relations with member states that flouted European law, as happened briefly in 2000 when Jörg Haider's far-right Freedom party joined the Austrian government. But suspension was a "nuclear option", he said, and unlikely to happen. "Like many people I am very disturbed by developments in Hungary. But 'rogue state' is not a phrase I would use. Hungary has not stopped being a democracy", Grant said. A more probable scenario was that Orbán’s anti-free-market policies would eventually end with him "eating humble pie" and asking for EU and IMF help.