János Bóka, Hungary’s EU affairs minister, said on Tuesday that another chapter has been added to opposition Tisza Party leader Péter Magyar’s platform in Brussels in the form of the document entitled "Rule-of-law Recommendations", adding that the document was "nothing more than a politically-motivated order for Magyar".
In a post on Facebook, Minister Bóka said the aim of the recommendations was for "foreign-funded so-called civil groups to be given free rein to conduct political activities in Hungary, for which they could receive an unlimited amount of foreign funding in an uncontrolled manner".
The minister said the aim was also for "foreign-funded media" to receive public funding, and for "smear campaigns against right-wing politicians and public figures to become an institutionalised practice based on the Polish model".
"This is not about the protection of the rule of law, but about institutionalised political pressure," he said.
"Brussels has also drafted Péter Magyar’s economic policy programme in advance; these are the European Semester recommendations," Minister Bóka said
He said Brussels wanted to scrap Hungary’s regulated utilities price scheme, the interest rate freeze and the mandatory caps on markups. Brussels also wanted Hungary to phase out home creation subsidies, scrap taxes on excessive corporate profits and tax refunds on diesel fuel for farmers, he added.
"The aim is to draft an economic policy that serves Brussels’s expectations against the interests of the Hungarian people," Minister Bóka said.
He said Brussels had made it clear that "Magyar can say whatever he wants in the campaign, but Ukraine has to be admitted to the European Union before 2030", regardless of what the European people may think about this and what consequences this may have for Europe.
"Magyar’s platform is being drafted in Brussels," Minister Bóka said. "It goes by many names -- recommendation, reform, report -- but the essence is always the same: they want to control Hungary from Brussels through a puppet government."