Briefing: Government not to attend EP debate on Hungary’s rule of law

The Hungarian government will not participate in next week’s European Parliamentary debate on the rule of law in Hungary, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, told a regular press conference on Thursday, and argued that there is no reason for the discussion.

The debate is set for January 30 in Brussels on recent developments concerning the rule of law and fundamental rights in Hungary.

Observance of the rule of law is just a “pretext” to allow “the sanctioning of Hungary because it was the first country to state clearly its rejection to take in migrants”, Gulyás said.

The mandate of the current European Parliament will expire in May, Gulyás said, and called the incumbent body “an outgoing range”.

Gulyás said EP had exceeded its powers and was seeking “new ways to support migration”. European institutions should remain “within the scope of the treaties”, he said. Plans to tie EU funding to the observance of the rule of law, he added, was “blackmail”.

He said US financier George Soros had met European Commission leaders 21 times in the current cycle, and insisted that “it is an illegitimate attempt” to influence it. The commission’s policies reflect Soros’s intent, he added.

Commenting on remarks by US political advisor George Birnbaum concerning the government’s Soros campaign, Gulyás said that neither the government nor ruling Fidesz had contracted Birnbaum and he had not provided any advisory services.

Answering another question concerning reports that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán would visit Belarus in February, Gulyás dismissed them, saying: “Such a visit is not in the prime minister’s diplomatic calendar”.

Concerning domestic affairs, Gulyás said that recent cooperation between conservative Jobbik and the leftist parties reflects “attempts by the Left to make racism and anti-Semitism presentable”.

Regarding Budapest’s Honvéd hospital, Gulyás said that “99 percent” of the employees had no objections to recently introduced changes to their work contracts, and those who had signed the modified documents would be granted a 35 percent pay rise.

He added that operations of the hospital’s neonatal unit, whose head recently quit his job, were uninterrupted. Concerning hospitals in general, he said that “some hospitals have no debt while others regularly get indebted”. He said the problem may not be to do with central financing but rather may be a management one.