Last week, the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (also known as LIBE) adopted the latest draft of its special report on Hungary. Though its tone and goals are the same as before (see my previous entries on LIBE here, here, here and here) the drafters managed to take their anti-Hungary bias to a new level. The result is this masterpiece collection of blatant, Hungary-related lies.
Defending Hungarian policies, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó attended last Thursday’s session of the LIBE committee and spoke in detail about particular topics cited in the draft report.
“The ruthless dispute” on migration between Hungary and the LIBE committee, Szijjártó said, will continue in the future as PM Orbán’s government won’t accept the mandatory EU quota and will keep Hungary a Hungarian country. “The people of Hungary have voiced a strong opinion on this matter, and we will not allow anybody to call into question the will of the people,” said the minister, referring to the fact that on April 8th Hungarian voters gave the ruling alliance Fidesz-KDNP the strongest mandate to form a new government that we have ever seen in Hungary’s democratic history.
Minister Szijjártó explained that from the LIBE committee’s perspective, Hungary represents an obstacle on the path towards the establishment of a mandatory quota mechanism with no temporal or quantitative limits. This is why “LIBE has been carrying out a show trial against Hungary for many years,” the minister said. The draft is nothing, but “a collection of compounded lies,” which disregards facts and reality.
On press freedom and the state of Hungarian NGOs, the FM said that “in Hungary, the press is much more diverse than in many Western European member states, and only a few of the 65 thousand non-governmental organizations operating in the country are complaining.” Indeed, the left-liberal mainstream media prefers to disregard a significant detail when it comes to foreign-funded NGOs: with the exception of the Soros-funded organizations, most NGOs have no issue with disclosing their financial details. After all, transparency is what they’ve been constantly demanding, so why reject it? If they are reluctant to be completely open about their donors, that’s not the fault of the law.
It seems that the European Parliament’s standards for meaningful debate have fallen to new lows. Member states, their democratically elected governments and the clearly articulated will of the citizens may be insulted and dismissed, but if someone dares to respond to this abuse, they take it as an offense. That’s a shame. What we need is honest, straightforward and open debate. But such a discussion can only take place if the politicos like those on the LIBE Committee treat Hungary’s position with respect. By granting a third consecutive supermajority to the Fidesz-KDNP alliance, Hungarian citizens have made it clear that they are opposed to large-scale immigration and firmly reject compulsory quotas.