THE HAT TRICK – Football, politics and German hypocrisy
Op-Ed By Sasha Uzunov
Hungary’s bombastic, populist Prime Minister Viktor Orban is not my idea of a political role model, I prefer Nelson Mandela, but Germany’s attack on the controversial and contradictory demagogue has been nothing short of breathtakingly hypocritical, arrogant and reminiscent of past brazen Nazi German bullying of weaker neighbouring states.
Orban has been targeted over his stance on LGBT issues, especially in not permitting education material about gay issues to those under 18. The recent European Football Championships, Euro 2020, was even used by Germany to mix politics with sport. The Netherlands Prime Minister Mark Rutte even went as far as calling for Hungary to be kicked out of the European Union
On the surface you would think Germany is concerned about LGBT issues. Simply not true. Germany doesn’t care about LGBT issues. It doesn’t care about human rights. It only cares about his own narrow self-interest, that is dominating Europe. If LGBT issues or whatever issues prove handy as political weapons then so be it.
For example, Albanian nationalist parties in Macedonia, Besa, Alliance, Alternative, all condemned the recently held Gay Pride March in Skopje, the Macedonian capital. Germany and for that matter the Netherlands have remained largely silent. Why are they silent, may you ask, if Germany and Netherlands are concerned about LGBT rights? Well, Albanian nationalists are supportive of Germany and for that matter the US’s agenda in the Balkans, including Macedonia. Orban is a political maverick who refuses to bend to Germany and Brussels’ will.
Germany, despite the cheap playacting about “rights,” has allowed Bulgarian motivated anti-Semitism in Macedonia to take hold and for Bulgaria to make outrageous demands, blackmail, extortion, on Macedonia give up its identity, language, history. Moreover, Germany has pandered to Greece for decades over the Macedonia issue and played its role together with the US in changing the country’s name via the imposed Prespa Agreement, despite it being rejected by the majority of Macedonians.
To add insult to injury, Germany refuses to remove the insulting, offensive World War II Albanian Nazi collaborator statues built in Macedonia post 2006 by pro US and pro German Albanian extremists from the far-right DUI party led by Ali Ahmeti, a former terrorist who started a war in Macedonia in 2001.