MEGA — “Make Europe Great Again” — is gaining popularity in Europe. The right-wing slogan is a play on its American cousin MAGA, “Make America Great Again,” and was adopted by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban as the slogan for his country’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, which began Monday.
There are convergences and divergences between MEGA and MAGA and each move has different implications for Japan and the Indo-Pacific.
First, within the EU, MEGA is associated with a desire for a smaller role for Brussels in the European project and greater representation of the values and policies of medium-sized and small member states. For Central and Eastern European countries in particular, the bloc is not about becoming more like Western Europe, but about capitalising on policies that represent local needs within the broader regional context — including in areas such as economic prosperity, security and the preservation of national and ethnic identities.
