EU Commissioner Sees the Hungarian Electorate as a Hindrance to Democracy

Vera Jourová, the EU Commissioner for Transparency and Values, admitted in an interview with a Czech newspaper on Tuesday that her work in Brussels had failed in terms of pressuring the Hungarian government into changing its policies.

I have not succeeded in leading the Hungarian government and the Hungarian political representation towards democracy. I have not been able to do that because it is in the hands of the Hungarian electorate,”

Vera Jourová said in an interview published in the Czech daily Lidové Noviny on Tuesday. By this she implicitly implied that she saw the Hungarian electorate’s choice for a civic conservative government as fundamentally in conflict with democratic principles, and regarded the majority of Hungarian voters as a hindrance to her efforts to “democratize” the country. The astonishing disclosure sheds further light into the thinking behind Jourová’s long-term conflicts with national-conservative governments in Europe, and could raise uncomfortable questions concerning a possible role reversal of the European Commission.

In the past, for instance, Jourová had famously threatened the Hungarian government with penalties if they failed to comply with her controversial Media Freedom Act introduced in the Autumn last year. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán then assessed the act by calling it “another anti-freedom proposal from Brussels: establishing total control over the media. We Central Europeans have seen such things in the past. They called it the Kominform and the Reichspressekammer. Never again!” Yet Jourová warned that “if the Hungarian government does not go along with this, it will be costly”, alluding to the penalties for non-compliance.

Another anti-freedom proposal from Brussels: establishing total control over the media. We Central Europeans have seen such things in the past. They called it the Kominform and the Reichspressekammer. Never again! #MediaFreedomAct https://t.co/XbjUBiZcBt

— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) October 4, 2023

She continued with her reflections in Lidové Noviny by saying that “for me, as an EU commissioner who has to defend the rule of law, it is essential that the government that wins the elections cannot take everything. The principle of ‘winner takes all’ must not prevail. And Mr Orbán has taken everything. Influence on the media, academic freedoms, and now he wants a law that is sharply targeted against NGOs,” pointed out the EU commissioner, whose term of office is about to expire. “This is something that I have the right to criticize because it goes against the principle of the rule of law, which I have to defend,” the Czech EU politician explained. Yet during her term the Commissioner has never produced any evidence proving that media freedoms and human rights are violated by the Hungarian government other than anecdotal evidence collected from opposition politicians and foreign-financed anti-government NGOs.

In contrast, she is reported to have been personally behind stalling EU funds to Poland’s former conservative government lead by Mateusz Morawiecki, despite EC chief Ursula von der Leyen reaching an agreement with the Polish government. Yet as the Fidesz Group in the European Parliament wrote in a statement on Friday “the double standards in Brussels are outrageous, with the Tusk government in Poland trampling on the rule of law and the European Commission turning a blind eye”. The European Commission’s profound silence is “an outrageous double standard” on its part, they said.

We can all easily imagine what action would have immediately been taken by Vera Jourová, the EU Commissioner for Transparency and Values, if this had happened in Budapest under Viktor Orbán,” they wrote.

Via MTI; Featured Image: European Commission