Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communication and relations, on Monday slammed the European Commission’s figures on trust in the individual member states’ justice systems, saying judiciary independence cannot be measured in opinion polls.
In a message to the news site Politico, Kovács wrote that “the independence of the judiciary is not a question that can be seriously evaluated in public opinion research and, secondly, the notion that you can use those subjective numbers as a basis of a ‘scoreboard’ … is problematic, to say the least.”
Kövér: “Judicial Independence Is Not Absolute Nor Can It Be Self-serving”
In reaction to Kovács’s letter, Politico issued a correction for its Friday newsletter saying that it was three quarters of Croatians, not Hungarians, who rated their countries’ judiciary independence badly. In Hungary, that number is 33 percent, barely above France’s 31 percent, Kovács pointed out.
Hungarian citizens rated Hungary 19th regarding the perceived independence of the judiciary, while companies said it was 27th of the 28 member states.
In the featured photo: Zoltán Kovács. Photo by Balázs Mohai/MTI