The foreign minister said no other member state of the European Union has probed the opinion of its citizens as often as Hungary, “which discredits all criticism on the state of democracy in the country.”
Speaking at a conference on the Századvég Institute’s Project Europe research, which surveyed the citizens of 28 member states on “issues that most affect the future of the EU”, Péter Szijjártó said the Hungarian government had integrated the results of its national consultation surveys into decision-making. Hungary sees democracy as a form of governance where the country is led according to the will of the people, on their mandate, he said. Meanwhile, “communication in Europe seems to become difficult … and it usually takes the form of lecturing and chastising,” he said. Democracy in Brussels “is understood differently, and equated with extreme liberalism,” he said.
Photo credit: MTI