Orbán cabinet suspicious about von der Leyen campaign – UPDATED
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen must not be allowed to use EU institutions for her re-election campaign, Kinga Gál, an MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz and vice-president of the Patriots for Europe group, said in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Gál’s comments came after the EC chief on Monday said the executive body will be represented by civil servants at informal Council meetings and that the College of Commissioners will not be visiting Hungary.
Gál said this was not the first time von der Leyen was “enforcing political goals” in cases when she would not be allowed to, citing the withholding of funds owed to Hungary as an example.
The MEP said von der Leyen’s actions went against everything that concerned good-faith cooperation between EU institutions and the order according to which they function. She said it was not up to von der Leyen or the EC to decide whom they would or would not cooperate with, arguing that there were “regulations in place that have worked well so far”.
Von der Leyen having difficulties with the Thursday voting
She said von der Leyen did not have the right to take such action even if she needed to win Thursday’s presidential election and it appeared she was having difficulty securing the number of votes needed.
Commenting on reports that the European Parliament’s Socialist, Liberal, Green, Left and European People’s Party politicians wanted to exclude members of Patriots for Europe from holding key positions in the EP, Gál said this was “a textbook example of how the mainstream doesn’t follow the rules of democracy in the EP”.
She added that she believed it was possible that the case could end up in court.
UPDATE: Government-close think-tank: Majority of Hungarians do not want von der Leyen re-elected
Fully 51 percent of Hungarians are set against incumbent president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, being re-elected, according to a Nezopont Institute survey published on Wednesday, while 26 percent approved of her nomination.
In its commentary, the think-tank said the parties of Peter Magyar and Ferenc Gyurcsany were poised to combine their votes to reinstall von der Leyen “against the will of the majority of Hungarians”, saying that the Socialists and the Liberals in the EP had joined the European People’s Party in a “backroom deal”.
Von der Leyen needs the votes of at least 361 MEPs on Thursday to carry on in her post.
The think-tank noted that Magyar’s Tisza Party has joined the EPP, while the Democratic Coalition belongs to the Socialist family of parties.
Nezopont also wrote of a “turning point in Hungarian domestic politics” due to the two parties’ cooperation.
The phone survey of voting-age adults was conducted between July 1 and 3.
Read also:
- Von der Leyen: Hungarians made Europe stronger, Hungarian commissioner: This is not the EU we dreamt of
- Despite PM Orbán’s protest, Ursula von der Leyen will lead the European Commission – Read more HERE
This woman is a menace in her own right, but the whole thing is a total, though unfunny, joke.
Her position is not elected but *S*elected, yet she wields enormous influence over hundreds of millions of ordinary people’s lives as well as over wealth creators’ interests. Even CCCP commissars of old had more of a democratic mandate than this chick.
Ridiculous. But that’s the E.U. for ya!