Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi told the European Parliament’s plenary debate that the European Union’s rule-of-law debates lacked any credibility.
In a video posted on Facebook, Hidvéghi said the Socialist government in Spain was trying to sweep crimes such as sedition and misuse of public funds under the rug. Meanwhile, “Hungary’s right-wing government is facing withdrawal of funds on trumped-up charges,” he said. “Those defending this Sanchez deal now suggest that those crimes were never really committed.” Had they not been committed, the Socialists should have raised their voices then; if they had been, the Socialists were trading the law and Spanish constitution just to remain in power, he said. “Isn’t this the textbook example of a serious violation of the rule of law?” Hidvéghi said the amnesty was a tool for extraordinary situations. “Forming a government after an election is no extraordinary event,” he added. “The deafening silence here in Brussels and Strasbourg of all the left-wing tenors of the rule of law is incredible.” Turning to Juan Fernando Lopez Aguilar, the head of the EP’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), Hidvéghi asked in the video: “Aren’t you ashamed for trying to defend the indefensible?” The whole affair was, Hidvéghi said, crystal clear proof “that all of the talk in the house of the rule of law has absolutely no credibility.”