Hungarian Opposition Parties Slam PM Orbán Over EU Summit Deal
- 22 Jul 2020 10:59 AM
- Hungary Matters
Hungary’s opposition parties have slammed Prime Minister Viktor Orbán over the agreement he brokered at the European Union summit on the bloc’s next budget and pandemic rescue package, saying he had caused Hungary to “lose huge sums” of money and that his politics were a “blow” to the country.
Socialist MEP István Ujhelyi (pictured above) said on Facebook that Orbán had been unable to meet “any of the four points” in a Hungarian parliamentary resolution passed last week.
According to Ujhelyi, the prime minister has failed to meet his goal of tying future infringement procedures to a unanimous consent within the community.
Orbán has “suffered a total defeat to the benefit of Hungary, since the EU has obliged members to disburse community funds in line with the rule of law”, he insisted.
Orbán has also been unable to “create an obstructive minority”, since “there aren’t enough illiberal politicians like Orbán” to reverse that decision, Ujhelyi added.
He noted that the recent EU summit rejected the Hungarian government plans to prevent civil organisations from receiving EU funds.
Hungary will not receive “as much from the coronavirus rescue package as it would like due to Orbán and government lies in recent years”, Ujhelyi said.
He insisted that Orbán had negotiated a “much worse” deal than in the previous cycle and much less funds than the Socialist governments before 2010.
Meanwhile, the leftist Democratic Coalition (DK) said that Orbán had “inflicted defeat” on Hungary at the summit, as “Hungary has never received such a small slice of the EU’s budget”.
DK MEP Klára Dobrev welcomed the agreement as a “huge step towards a United Nations of Europe”.
She added, however, that Hungary had received “no additional funds whatsoever” while Poland, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Malta and others had succeeded in getting additional funding.
She insisted that Hungary would get no additional money due to Orbán’s “weak negotiating power”. Dobrev insisted that Orbán had also failed to fulfil the conditions set by the Hungarian parliament, as the European Council now only needs 15 votes to withdraw funding from countries where the rule of law is deemed to be wanting.
“It will fall to us European Democrats to replace Orbán and to lead Hungary back to European democracy and a strong lobbying power,” Dobrev said.
MTI Photo
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