The Committee on Legal Affairs (JURI) of the European Parliament on Monday confirmed its position that there is a conflict of interest between the post of commissioner to which László Trócsányi, Hungary’s former justice minister, has been designated and the activities of a law firm associated with him.
The committee interviewed Trócsányi last Thursday and established the conflict of interest in a secret ballot.
Trócsányi, an MEP of ruling Fidesz, has been designated to lead the ‘Neighbourhood and Enlargement’ portfolio.
The government communications centre said that the “real crime” Trocsanyi had committed as justice minister was to “help protect Hungary from migration”. The European Parliament’s “pro-migration” deputies, however, “won’t have a European Commissioner who closed down Hungary’s borders before the migrants”, the centre said in a statement.
The statement noted that Trócsányi had been instrumental in passing legislation to prevent migrants from entering the country without travel documents.
Fidesz MEP József Szájer called the committee’s move a “cowardly decision”. He insisted that Trócsányi had been the victim of “political lynching” by leftist members of the body, who “sought to punish him for protecting Hungarian citizens by creating the legal border seal”.