The European left wing, which “raced to see who could devise lies faster to shame Hungary and the Hungarian government” in the spring, now acknowledge positively the country’s epidemic defense.
Gergely Gulyás said the European People’s Party is suffering a leadership crisis, recording its worst performance of the past twenty years in the latest European parliamentary elections.
The German politician had publicly declared that he did not want to win the office with Hungarian votes.
MEP Tamás Deutsch said a European People’s Party’s EP group meeting on Wednesday night was “calm and sober, despite earlier hopes by the EPP’s adversaries”.
The foreign minister called for double standards to be set aside and for the restoration of a “culture of mutual respect”.
EPP group leader Manfred Weber stated in an online press conference on December 3 that the notorious rule of law mechanism, designed to force Member States into altering their stance on key policy areas, is not being set up expressly against Hungary and Poland. According to PM Orbán, however, the truth is completely the opposite. The following is the official, English language transcript of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's response to Weber.
The prime minister recommended that the party alliance should modify its strategic guideline and return to the heritage of Wilfried Martens.
The foreign minister said maintaining Schengen is critical for the EU’s competitiveness and the effective protection of external borders is necessary for this to work.
Gergely Gulyás said that if Fidesz quit the EPP, the party would still regard the CDU and CSU as its partners in Germany.
CDU general secretary Paul Ziemiak and CSU leader Markus Söder had warned against the “hasty removal of Fidesz from the EPP.”
Katalin Novák said Fidesz is actively pursuing a form of cooperation which would “be the best possible way for Hungarians and also Europeans.”
Antonio Tajani has called it a "political mistake" that the EPP membership of Hungary's ruling Fidesz party had been called into question.
The Hungarian government would regard the appointment of Frans Timmermans as European Commission president “unacceptable”, a government official said, adding the reason why was that the candidate was backed by the Social Democrats and George Soros.