EC ‘blackmailing’ Hungary over child protection law, says Orbán cainet

Lately the European Commission has been blackmailing Hungary over its child protection law, Justice Minister Judit Varga said on Facebook on Tuesday, commenting on the commission’s fresh rule of law report.

“We are not surprised: the latest report of the European Commission focuses on the Hungarian Law on Child Protection,” she said in her English-language post. “According to them, in Hungary right now, there is no rule of law precisely because we protect children’s and parents’ rights at the highest level.”

She said the reason behind the EC’s criticism was that “we do not allow LGBTQ activists and any sexual propaganda into Hungarian schools and kindergartens.”

Once again, the EC is worried about the state of Hungarian democracy, while Hungary is working to guarantee the most fundamental rights and protect not just its own constitution but also the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights, the minister said.

She noted that the report released on Tuesday was the second of its kind within a year.

The report released last autumn also proves that it is impossible to compile an objective comparable analysis on complex legal institutions “based on politically motivated starting points, prejudices and unstable methodological footing”, Varga said.

“Be under no illusion: the verdict in the latest report on Hungary has been made even before a letter was written on a paper, as instead of justification, objectivity and real professional work, the report echoes the criticisms of those NGOs that remain negatively biased towards Hungary,” she said.

Varga said the report was part of the same campaign in which the rule of law was not a principle, but “a tool of extortion”.

It appears that once again the commission is choosing to appease the LGBTQ lobby over protecting national minorities or combatting anti-Semitism, she said.

In its report, the EC welcomed the Hungarian justice system’s high level of digitalisation and its performance in terms of the lengths of proceedings. It added, however, that a recommendation to Hungary to strengthen judicial independence “remains unaddressed”, noting that new rules allowing the appointment of members of the Constitutional Court to the Supreme Court outside of the normal procedure is among developments “adding to existing concerns”.

As for the system of checks and balances, the EC said the transparency and quality of the legislative process remained a source of concern.

The EC acknowledged in the report that Hungary is implementing an anti-corruption strategy but said “its scope remains limited”.

“Shortcomings persist as regards political party financing, lobbying and ‘revolving doors’. Risks of clientelism, favouritism and nepotism in high-level public administration as well as risks arising from the link between businesses and political actors remain unaddressed,” according to the report.

The EC said media pluralism in Hungary “remains at risk”, adding that “concerns persist with regard to the independence and effectiveness of the Media Authority”.

“While no media support schemes were established to counter the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on news media outlets, significant amounts of state advertising have continued to permit the government to exert indirect political influence over the media,” according to the report.

The commission said that emergency measures introduced during the pandemic had made timely access to public information harder for independent media outlets.

Source: MTI