The European Parliament's majority claims that "Hungary can no longer be considered a full democracy."Continue reading
The European Parliament’s recent report that suggests withholding Hungary’s EU funds received criticism from Transylvanian Hungarian MEPs.
Representatives of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ) did not side with the mainstream of their party family, the European People’s Party (EPP), in the vote about the European Parliament’s report on Hungary earlier this month. According to the rapporteur, French MEP Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA), Hungary’s EU funds should be withheld because the country has turned into an “electoral autocracy.”
The Transylvanian Hungarian MEPs were asked by Transtelex about their vote. According to the article, Loránt Vincze criticized the report during the European Parliament’s debate. He rejected Delbos-Corfield’s claim that the Orbán government does not guarantee the rights of national minorities, including Roma and Jews, and does not protect them from hate speech. According to the RMDSZ politician, the rapporteur could not support this statement with facts.
Vincze told Transtelex that he also disagrees with the other findings of the report, most of which he says are factually refutable. According to him, since Fidesz has been in government, there has been a “witch-hunt” against Hungary in various forms and with varying degrees of intensity.
Vincze made strong statements about what influences the decisions of Western MEPs. “The EP judges Hungary on political, ideological grounds. (…) When a German colleague of mine votes for the rule of law report, he does so not out of holy conviction, but because his electorate expects it. Because German voters hear it every day on all the German media channels that Hungary is not a constitutional state, that it is a dictatorship, that minority rights are being violated and so on, and they expect the same position from their representatives, who do not go against the will of the electorate,” he said.
“It is also clear from the voting figures that there are fewer and fewer people in the EP today who can distinguish between ideology and facts,”
Vincze added. As far as the EPP is concerned, Vincze said that the vast majority of the party family is forced by ideological conformity to adopt the same position as the left, liberals, Greens, or even communists in their assessment of Hungary.
According to RMDSZ MEP Gyula Winkler, the EP should develop a rule of law mechanism that operates with clear definitions, measurable and comparable criteria, and – above all – that which applies equally to all Member States, rather than campaigning against individual Member States.
Photo via the European Parliament