Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has responded to comments made by Manfred Weber, the group leader of the European People's Party, concerning the EU's planned rule of law mechanism.
“The situation is clear, dear Manfred: You want to alter the current legal status in order to create a mechanism that you immediately turn against Hungary and Poland. In light of the statements by the European Commission, European Parliament and national governments, you can no longer deny this. Now, you want us, Hungarians to give our consent,” the prime minister said. “Over the course of history, Germans have asked for many things from us Hungarians. Yet you are the first ones to consider us Panscher. That we are not,” PM Orbán said.
PM Orbán quoted Weber as saying that the mechanism was designed to separate the issues of the rule of law from partisan disputes rather than aimed against Hungary or Poland. “The truth is just the opposite," PM Orbán said, adding that this borne out from the remarks of European politicians such as Věra Jourová, who had referred to him as “building a sick democracy”, Didier Reynders, who said that Hungary and Poland had “rule-of-law crises”, and Frans Timmermans, who said that a free press was “virtually non-existent” in Hungary.
Photo credit: 24.hu