Jobbik on the Sargentini report and the destroyers of Europe

Press release of Jobbik’s executive vice president Márton Gyöngyösi: Most parents take it amiss if some members of the extended family interfere with how they raise their children, so the unwanted advice of cousins, aunts and uncles hardly help harmony in the family. However, it’s quite a different case if these parents, after a few shots of liquor, smack their offspring around amidst foul curses – these relatives are quite likely held to account for their behaviour and not invited to the grandmother’s birthday party again, or even reported to the police for child abuse.

This is how we Hungarians relate to Europe and the Sargentini report as well.

Jobbik has always disapproved of outsiders or EU institutions giving unsolicited “good advice” on Hungary’s internal affairs and manipulating Hungarian domestic policy to their own liking.

However, we must also realize that today, in September 2018, the debate is no longer about some western liberals having different ideas than most Hungarians but about the Hungarian government deliberately violating all European fundamental values. Viktor Orbán’s activity is no longer just a Hungarian “family feud” but a conscious destruction of the values of our extended environment and culture – which, unfortunately, entails that the “extended family”, i.e., Europe, is in embarrassed silence first, then reprimands you and eventually reports you wherever possible.

It can no longer be considered a Hungarian domestic affair if the government’s corrupt friends simply steal the funds received from the European Union. Hungary is entitled to these funds but the government is not entitled to stealing the monies allocated for the welfare of the Hungarian people.

As a member of the European Union, Hungary has the right to decide who we want to grant protection status to and who we don’t, but the Hungarian government does not have the right to let half the Russian intelligence network and Muslim jihadists loose in Europe for a payment of EUR 300 thousand per head.

Hungary has the right to conduct its policies in line with its customs but Fidesz does not have the right to fine opposition parties through the State Audit Office, manipulate the judiciary and single-handedly buy up the media. If these practices are criticized by the European Union, that’s not an unwanted interference with Hungarian domestic affairs but the protection of the interests of an extended community. Let us note here that Hungary accepted these rules when it joined this community. Even Viktor Orbán did so, as he was one of the most fervent advocates of the European Union in Hungary at the time.

Beside the justified criticism, Judith Sargentini’s report unfortunately contained “unwanted good advice” as well: the MP could not get rid of the so often criticized liberal hubris and she included the liberal themes on migration and allocation quotas, and even managed to play the anti-Semite card. By doing so, she immediately destroyed everything she had written down before. Sargentini reduced an important cause into a farce and constructed a theatre stage for Viktor Orbán so that he could shine as the saviour of Europe.

It is all in vain, even though a significant part of the report discusses eliminating the freedom of the press in Hungary, curbing electoral rights, occupying the judiciary, the pro-Fidesz circle squeezing other intellectuals out of their positions or imposing a giga-fine on Jobbik.

Viktor Orbán can now talk about nothing but migration and play his own game on his own terrain, now on the centre stage of European politics, where Sargentini raised him through her liberal haughtiness. This is such a shame for both Hungary and the European Union.

Jobbik wants to play no part in this farce: we cannot deny the report’s statements on the rule of law while we do not want to support the nonsense about migration.

That’s why we abstain from the vote and hope that we can discuss real and substantial issues in the European Union in the future. The dispute that broke out after the Sargentini report revealed everybody’s positions: siding with the destroyers, Viktor Orbán is working to make Europe collapse and to separate Europe’s nations by distrust and borders. The Brexit has already shown where all this leads to. Meanwhile, Sargentini and her western liberal friends supply ammunition for Orbán’s war, offering him a whole array of conflict situations.

Unlike them, we want real debates and real solutions. We want a fairer Europe with more solidarity and social sensitivity where Hungarian people are offered a predictable future in their daily lives. That’s what Jobbik works for.

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Photo: MTI/AP/Jean-Francois Badias