The EU’s Silence Over Hungary is Deafening, Says Slovak Interior Minister

“Nothing to see here”, thinks EPP President, Manfred Weber (R) when asked about the situation in Hungary

 

After serious concern voiced recently by prominent politicians from Spain, Germany, France and Italy over Péter Magyar’s autocratic and undemocratic style of governing, the Interior Minister of one of our neighbors and strategic allies has added his voice to those who think that the EU has double standards in assessing the state of the rule of law. 

“The silence coming from the European Union is Deafening”, said Sutaj Estok on the Slovak television’s “Teraz Takto” program yesterday. No one seems to pay attention to the fact that there are things happening in Hungary that are absolutely unprecedented, said the Slovak Interior Minister. If we did the same what the Hungarian Prime Minister is doing, even if only a small part of that was happening in Slovakia, we would be receiving diplomatic protest notes, and foreign politicians would be up in arms that we are trampling on the rule of law. All the while in Hungary they force out the President, and still, part of the Hungarian media are saying that he should consider himself lucky considering he could have been even jailed.

 

They bring in legislation that retroactively restricts the mandate of members of parliament, continued the Slovak minister. Experienced delegates thus have no chance to be reelected, he pointed out. There was also interference with the public broadcaster in Hungary, simply due to the fact that the new government had decided that it was not “objective”. All this is fascinating from the point of view of the European Commission that they are somehow unable to see what is happening there. Today they are all silent. European members of parliament have now stopped coming to Hungary, and are not asking either what is happening there (as they did so often in the past, ed. note). It is unbelievable how double faced some politicians are.

If it was Viktor Orbán who made such changes, Hungary would have been on a blacklist. The EU would even block the air from them. But now that it is done by a man who is sympathetic towards Brussels, everything is fine.

 

Sutaj Estok is not the first Slovak top politician to criticize Magyar for his conduct. Earlier in June Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár spoke out saying that Magyar’s attempts to remove the president through changes to the constitution can especially be problematic as, in his view,

these attempts are based on the presumption of guilt, not that of innocence, and therefore they are not in line with the principles of rule-of-law.

Although the European Commission and European Parliament are publicly content with the way Péter Magyar has been running Hungarian democracy to the ground, increasingly European politicians, non-governmental organizations and journalists have voiced their strong concerns with recent events in the country. Even the German press, who have initially celebrated Magyar’s electoral victory as a triumph over despotism and corruption, are now openly denouncing his brutal crusade against neutral public officials and his controversial changes to the Hungarian constitution. Yet with the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen agreeing to release previously blocked EU funds, and European People’s Party President Manfred Weber saying that he is not concerned about recent events in Hungary, Péter Magyar seems to have complete carte blanche from his sponsors in Brussels to destroy the domestic conservative sphere with complete impunity.

 

Via Teraz Takto s Ankou Zitnou; Featured Image: MTI/Bodnár Boglárka