Another skirmish between Orbán and MEPs

Published on 3 July 2013 at 13:56

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"Don't teach us democracy!" runs the headline in pro-government Hungarian daily, Magyar Hírlap, which quotes the Hungarian Prime Minister's response to the European Parliament. On July 2, PM Viktor Orbán participated in a discussion organised at the European Parliament regarding the condition of fundamental human rights in his country.
Viktor Orbán said that a report by Portuguese MEP Rui Tavares adopted by the Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee is unfair.
The Tavares Report, on which the Parliament votes on July 3, asks Hungarian authorities to fully restore the rule of law, to respect the independence of the justice system, to ensure freedom of speech, freedom of the press, religious freedom, the right to own property and to respect the rights of minorities.
In its analysis of the sharp discussion between Viktor Orbán and some of the MEPs, the paper denounces critics' "obsessions"

Yesterday obsessions were pitched against concrete things and fundamental views. Obsessions are the means used in this struggle against Hungary in the name of "human rights in general". [...] Obsessions are used because they don't require justification.
But for Hungarian opposition daily Népszava

Our dear leader openly explained in Strasbourg his conception of democracy. The main thing is that we Hungarians – that is to say those in power – have no need of lessons on this subject because we won the elections. Guy Verhofstadt, head of the Liberal Group, was certainly correct when he said that the problem was exactly that – the difference between the EU's conception of democracy and Orbán's. The latter believes that if his party wins a majority, it can do anything."

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In spite of the roughness of the discussion, another opposition daily, Népszabadság, recognises that —

The European Union cannot do much about the policies of the Hungarian prime minister. Orbán does not have much to worry about when his slogan – which is nonsense – "a Union of free nations, not an empire" – is applauded in the European Parliament. [...] Paradoxically, however, he did touch on a fundamental point: the changes that have taken place in Hungary show that Europe needs a more robust system of measures in order to curb member states that violate the rules of the parliamentary system.

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