The first one is the PM's son-in-law former company, Elios, which had been involved in a streetlamp project, in which the European Anti-Fraud Office smelled corruption.Continue reading
“German and Dutch taxpayers won’t just be forever standing by and watching Putin’s poodle stealing thousands of billions of their tax money without any control,” the opposition’s Ákos Hadházy reacted after the European Commission said it activated the rule-of-law conditionality mechanism against Hungary. The opposition says it is exclusively the Orbán government’s corruption and theft that led to the situation, which is definitely endangering the Hungarian economy.
The opposition lawmaker made a reference to the opposition’s former presidential candidate, Péter Róna, who warned just before the election that this could happen. Hadházy (who claimed a confident victory against Fidesz’s candidate in Zugló on April 3) further argued:
The decision could have serious consequences for the Hungarian economy (stock market has already plummeted), but sober-minded Hungarian citizens cannot argue against it. The opposition has never asked for money to be taken away from the country, but it has asked for it to be withheld until there are guarantees that Fidesz won’t steal it.”
Hadházy also claims that the EC decision came too late, as “our compatriots, deceived by [Fidesz’s] propaganda, have already made up their minds on Sunday.”
Momentum MEP and President, Anna Donáth, commented that “Not only have we still not received the money due from the [coronavirus] recovery fund (…) due to the government’s fault, but now the European Commission has announced that more EU funds are at risk (…) All this while they are taking no action against Poland.”
It has become quite clear that the Hungarian government is not willing to honor any anti-corruption guarantees, it would rather forgo the EU funds. Yet Viktor Orbán himself admitted a few weeks ago that an economic crisis was coming. This leaves them no other option: since they refuse to stop embezzling EU money, they will be forced to make severe austerities in the coming months. And we are all going to feel it.”
Socialist (MSZP) MEP István Ujhelyi argued that in contrast to the government’s claims, it wasn’t the law dubbed by them as the “child protection law” or the government’s anti-migration stances, but the systemic theft and corruption that eventually triggered the EC’s decision.
Viktor Orbán and Fidesz will be forced to realize that a two-thirds majority does not mean supremacy of the law, and that in the interests of the Hungarian people – and in the interests of the masses who voted for Fidesz – they must make a decisive change and guarantee the fair use of EU funds and the restoration of the rule of law. This is in Hungary’s clear and unequivocal interest,” he commented.
According to Jobbik MP Koloman Brenner, Europe has had enough of Orbán: the rule of law procedure has been launched. Jobbik’s (the People’s party) position is clear: EU monies should serve the welfare of Hungarian citizens, and not Orbán and his clique.
featured image: Momentum’s Anna Donáth in the EP; via Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI