Justice Minister Judit Varga said that Hungary was treated as a “black sheep just for rejecting migration”, in an interview published in German daily Die Welt.
Minister Varga praised the work of the European Union’s German presidency, saying its “balance is positive … despite the coronavirus epidemic” ravaging the continent. The priority now should be distributing the 750 billion euro recovery fund, allocated to offset the fallout of the pandemic, as quickly as possible, she said.
According to MTI, the minister noted that under German presidency, the Council and the European Parliament have concluded an agreement on making EU funding conditional on adhering to rule of law regulations. Minister Varga called the agreement a “bad compromise” that endangered the rule of law rather than protecting it. One consequence of the agreement could be that Brussels could employ “ideological blackmail” against member states by forcing them to adopt its political views, she said.
Minister Varga noted that the European Council had in July adopted an agreement saying that the EU’s multiannual budget and the recovery fund could not be tied to rule of law issues. The Hungarian government views all packages running afoul of that agreement as unacceptable, she said. The core values of the EU should be protected by open debate and “unanimous amendments to the EU treaty,” she said. “We want to protect our Christian roots. We don’t want a multicultural society. We want to keep marriage as a bond between a woman and a man … Certain issues are decided by the states,” Minister Varga said.