Dutch Foreign Minister Gets Tough Response

The State Secretary of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry told the Dutch Foreign Minister to focus on the rule of law in his own country.

Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra attacked Hungary in a recent interview according to Tamás Menczer, State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. He recalled – referring to the report adopted last week – that “based on the lies of the European Parliament, the diplomat said that the rule of law and the common values are in danger in Hungary, and that it is horrible what is happening in connection with the judges and the independent press.”

“After that, I took a look at what is going on in the Netherlands regarding the rule of law,” Menczer said in his Facebook video on Tuesday. He listed:

• Anti-Semitic crimes were committed in the Netherlands 300 times in 2019, 135 times in 2020 and 200 times in 2021.
• According to a survey by the Association of Dutch Journalists, 80 percent of the journalists have received threats; a couple of years ago this number was 60 percent, so this is a growing tendency.
• A lawyer defending a witness in a drug-related killing case was shot dead in broad daylight in the street. A journalist investigating drug deals was killed right after leaving a TV studio. The head of the police trade union warned that the Netherlands is becoming a “narco state.”
• The state secretary for migration had to resign because the government concealed serious crimes committed by migrants.
• The head of the Administrative Court in the Netherlands is a former left-liberal politician.
• Since 2020, the Dutch tax authority wrongly accused more than 26,000 parents of making fraudulent benefit claims and forced them to repay tens of thousands of euros. “The Dutch tax authorities have committed an unprecedented injustice against innocent families.”

“I have to say that I am very concerned about the state of the rule of law in the Netherlands. It would be expected that the European Parliament should immediately convene an extraordinary sitting and report on the state of the rule of law in the Netherlands, and it would also be expected that the Dutch Foreign Minister should next address Hungary when he has finally succeeded in putting his own country in order,” Menczer concluded.

Featured photo via the European Council