Orbán proposes Olivér Várhelyi for commissioner designate
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Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday that he would nominate ambassador Olivér Várhelyi, the head of Hungary’s permanent representative office in Brussels, as Hungary’s candidate for European commissioner.
The European Parliament’s legal affairs committee confirmed earlier on Monday that it had rejected Hungary’s initial commissioner designate László Trócsányi on the grounds that there were conflicts of interest between the post and the activities of legal firm Nagy es Trócsányi.
At a joint press conference held with Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne, Orbán said in response to a question that President-elect of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen had asked him to propose a new candidate.
Orbán said he was in a “special situation” considering that Trócsányi used to be justice minister and he headed ruling Fidesz’s list at the European parliamentary elections and he was told that he would be needed as commissioner designate.
The Fidesz list received 53 percent support from voters and “we thought that this would represent a strong democratic legitimacy which would make it easy for the EC president and the EP to make a decision,” he added. However, it happened differently, Orbán said.
“I did not reject the president’s request but I could not allow others, such as the EP, to make their pick among Hungarian politicians instead of the Hungarian people,” he said. This is the reason why a technocrat has now been proposed for the post instead of a political delegate, he added.
He said there has been no change as regards the portfolio to be overseen by Hungary.
In response to a question about the principle of the rule of law, the prime minister said Hungarians had not been as “lucky” as the Finns “because after the second world war, we were invaded and there was a dictatorship here for more than forty years”.
He said that in Hungary, the issue of the state of the rule of law was not a legal one, but rather one of honour.
“Whenever someone questions us or the state of the rule of law in Hungary, they’re stepping on our honour and I would advise them to think this over carefully,” Orbán said. International relations are not built on the idea that “one country can insult the other”, but rather on mutual respect, Orbán added.
“I don’t recommend getting to the point in Europe where a prime minister or one of their officials visits another country in the bloc to give them an earbashing on the issue of the rule of law, because that’ll lead to a lot of things, but not European unity,” the prime minister said.