Government spokesperson claims that the LIBE report was drawn up ‘by the Soros empire’
The draft report on Hungary presented on Thursday by the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee is authored by people “with strong ties to the Soros empire”, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltán Kovács has said.
Last spring, the EP’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) was asked to prepare a report on Hungary with a view to holding an EP vote on launching the first steps of Article 7, which suspends voting rights.
Presenting the report in a session of the committee in Brussels, green MEP Judith Sargentini said there was a “clear risk of a serious breach by Hungary of the values of the European Union”, which she said warranted launching the Article 7 procedure.
Speaking at a press conference on Friday, Kovács said the report aimed to achieve “what they couldn’t at the national election,” which was to break the government’s categorical rejection of a mandatory resettlement quota and turn Hungary into an “immigrant county”.
Kovács called the procedure a “political witch hunt”,
adding that Hungary had not been invited to the EP session and had even been denied access when the foreign minister requested to be present.
He said the government would do everything in its power to thwart the report, arguing that Fidesz’s resounding victory at the April 8 election had given it a mandate to do so.
Commenting on the report, leftist Democratic Coalition MEP Péter Niedermüller told the press on Friday that it was a “last warning” to the Hungarian government, which he said would have to brace for “long, intense and very critical” negotiations with the EU over the coming years.
A growing number of politicians think that Hungary should face an EU procedure if it does not comply with EU values, Niedermüller said.
Hungary cannot be a part of the bloc while denying the values and norms it is based on, he said.
The draft report does not discuss the Hungarian election or question its outcome, nor does it try to interfere with the country’s internal politics, Niedermüller said. It merely lists “problems pertaining to the rule of law that the Hungarian government has created in recent years”, he said.
Source: MTI