"The judgment on February 16 will reveal that the Court of Justice sees a federal Europe as being desirable. This is not a big surprise," Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote previously.Continue reading
“Orbán was defeated at the European Court of Justice, but Hungary and the Hungarian people won,” said Momentum MEP Katalin Cseh, after the ruling by the European Court of Justice dismissed the rule of law challenge of Hungary and Poland. The opposition believes this ruling now shows that the EU has the right to punish those who steal EU funds.
In reaction to the ruling of the European Union’s top court, Hungary’s united opposition parties, officially named United for Hungary, released a statement.
“After today’s decision of the European Court of Justice it has become clear that every single Hungarian citizen will have to pay a heavy, concrete, and monetizable price for the undemocratic functioning of the Orbán government,” the opposition alliance said.
“We believe this renders the stakes of the election even clearer: if Fidesz wins, we [Hungarians] will not have access to the resources that the Hungarian people and the Hungarian economy deserve,” the united opposition added.
The opposition parties also pledged that if they win the upcoming parliamentary elections, “the EU will not have to use sanctions against the Hungarian government to protect its own citizens.”
Commenting on Wednesday’s ruling, Péter Márki-Zay, the opposition’s joint candidate for prime minister, said on social media:
Viktor Orbán has taken 600,000 forints out of the pocket of every Hungarian,”
suggesting that Hungary could be denied around 6,000 billion forints from the EU’s pandemic recovery fund.
Meanwhile, Democratic Coalition MEP Klára Dobrev believes that “this ruling means the EU has the right to punish those who steal EU funds.”
According to the opposition politician, Viktor Orbán and his party “failed miserably” since they could not prevent the EU from “protecting taxpayers’ money.”
The decision also shows that the dismantling of the Hungarian rule of law is not compatible with European values, Klára Dobrev added.
The DK politician said that the stakes of the April elections in the light of the ruling are whether the country can regain its honor and integrity.
Fellow MEP of the Socialist party (MSZP) István Ujhelyi also shared his thoughts on the ruling:
The Fidesz government is lying when they cite the refugee issue or the homophobic law passed as a provocation as the reason for the rule of law proceedings – the real reason for the rule of law proceedings is solely the state-level corruption and the significant erosion of the independence of the judiciary. Fidesz tells a filthy lie when it talks about politically motivated double standards in relation to the rule of law objections; like the shoplifter who feels offended when asked to stop at the exit even though he has a large-screen color TV under his arm. In a proper country, a justice minister would step down immediately and voluntarily, especially after questioning the ruling of the judiciary to which she herself had appealed,”
Ujhelyi said on Facebook.
“Orbán was defeated at the European Court of Justice, but Hungary and the Hungarian people won,” wrote Momentum MEP Katalin Cseh on her social media page. In reaction to the ECJ ruling, she added that if Viktor Orbán stays in power, the Hungarian people and the Hungarian economy will not be able to access the resources they deserve.
In the event of a change of government, Hungary will be led by a government that will put the country back on the democratic, European path and against which there will be no need to launch a rule of law procedure.
Anna Donáth, Momentum’s president, said on her social media page after the decision that “the EU money owed to Hungarians can no longer be spent on enriching the Prime Minister’s family without consequences.”
We must change the government on April 3rd so that we can use EU funds to build a country in which everyone prospers, not just the privileged members of Fidesz.
“A country that is a Hungary for all of us,” said the president and MEP of Momentum.
Featured photo via Viktor Orbán’s Facebook page