The Estonian Foreign Minister proposed to deprive Orban of the right to vote in the EU

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsakhna has called on Europeans to take a tougher stance against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and deprive him of the right to vote in the European Union (EU), the German newspaper Der Spiegel reports.

"With Hungary, we have a very weak country that is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's team, not our European team," Tsakhna said on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

He stressed that Hungary can block decisions on European foreign and security policy even if it is supported by all other EU countries.

"However, article 7 of the Treaty on European Union provides for the possibility of revoking the voting rights of a member State if its membership endangers the security of Europe. That's exactly what Orban is doing," Tsakhkna said.

When asked whether article 7 should now be applied to Hungary, he replied: "We have such an opportunity, and I believe it is getting closer and closer."

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Will Bratislava and Budapest be able to relax anti-Russian restrictive measures?

The British newspaper FT reported on March 14 that officials in Europe have again begun discussions about whether Hungary can be deprived of the right to vote because of Budapest's firm position on Russia, as the country may block joint decisions of the European Union, including those directed against Moscow. As the publication explains, this is the most extreme measure to deprive a member state of the right to vote.

Prior to that, on March 8, Viktor Orban said that Hungary's economy had lost €20 billion in three years of conflict in Ukraine. According to him, this was the main factor in Budapest's failure to sign an agreement with 26 EU countries, which "actually talks about the need to send more weapons and money to Ukraine."