The EU's war against Hungary is only getting worse
If the EU seeks to isolate Hungary it could also drive Budapest into the arms of Russia.
The Hungarian law is designed to guard against what Budapest sees as foreign interference, having long campaigned against what it sees as the undue power of NGOs and organisations linked to billionaire liberal George Soros. Unsurprisingly perhaps the EU also has Hungary's related Sovereignty Protection Authority in its sights.
For Hungary, recent events in Poland have been especially troubling, since Budapest strongly suspects the EU meddled in the former's recent election to get its favoured candidate, Donald Tusk, into power via the backdoor. The EU, Hungary believes, used the withholding of funds for Poland as a means to influence the election.
For Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán - and his allies in the outgoing Polish Law and Justice party - withholding EU cash has less to do with the rule of law and more about getting Central and Eastern European EU states to fall into line with Western European norms and values, especially as regards immigration and LGBT rights.
Tensions between Brussels and Budapest are now rising and getting worse, amid rumours the EU will actively seek to sabotage the Hungarian economy if Orbán doesn't start to play ball.
Make no mistake, the latest action by the European Commission - which affords Hungary two months to reply and could be referred to the European Court of Justice - is a huge escalation. For Orbán and his allies the reaction to the law is almost tantamount to confirmation that Hungary is guarding against foreign interference, as he believes was the case in Poland.
If the EU seeks to isolate Hungary it could also drive Budapest into the arms of Russia. Orbán has to realise his goal of forcing the EU into a looser association of sovereign states is for the birds. The centralised EU will never allow for that. Should Hungary stay or should it go? Hungarians need to make a decision on their own terms before the EU makes a decision for them.