Jobbik: The end of the Merkel era – but is it the beginning of a new one?

Berlin, Germany. Armin Laschet is CDU’s new president. Photo: MTI/EPA/Action Press pool/Christian Marquardt

Remarks from Jobbik MEP Márton Gyöngyösi:

My hunch was right – said Márton Gyöngyösi, Jobbik MEP- Armin Laschet is CDU’s new president – It seems that a long era has ended and Germany’s governing party CDU has elected a new president: Armin Laschet (who I thought had the best chance). I trust that the new leader will be able to give a new momentum to his party and steer the Christian Democrats to a more markedly centre right position after the perhaps left-leaning tendencies of recent years, while the German governing party will become a force committed to a deepening cooperation but cautious in terms of federalism.
I also hope that the CDU’s new strong leadership will be able to finally put an end to the Fidesz farce dragged on so long in the European People’s Party, and make it clear that corrupt dictators and their orgy-going band have no place in European politics.

Koloman Brenner, the Deputy Speaker of National Assembly of Hungary said, that: We are talking about such a Europe where the European Commission’s lead candidate system can be overridden by putting political delegates in positions after some deals made behind closed doors, and where the European Commission can sweep off the expressed will of nearly 1.3 million European citizens and the majority of the European Parliament who want to promote an EU-wide legislation process to protect native ethnic minorities, and where Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz are allowed to construct an anti-democratic single-party system by trampling on the rule of law as long as he keeps supplying cheap Hungarian labour – to the greatest joy of the German economy. This is a Europe where, as I already said in the Parliament, the parties haggled over the joint EU budget and the recovery plan instead of taking real steps toward the unification of our continent.

For that to happen however, German politicians need to realize that it’s pointless to build Europe without its citizens. The economy is important and so is stability, but people are the most important. When it comes to a truly democratic Europe characterized by real solidarity, it is the will of the people that must rule over any hushed deals made behind closed doors.