The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) held its first “exchange of views on the Situation in Hungary” today. Judith Sargentini (Green/EFA, NL) presented “her draft report on democracy, rule of law and fundamental rights in the country.”
It was in May 2017 that the LIBE committee was instructed to study the situation in Hungary “with a view to actuating Article 7(1) of the EU Treaty,” which reads that “on a reasoned proposal by one third of the Member States, by the European Parliament or the European Commission, the Council, acting by a majority of four fifths of its members after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament, may determine that there is a clear risk of a serious breach by a Member State of the values referred to in Article 2.” To refresh everybody’s memory, Article 2 states that “the Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.”
The 26-page draft report expresses serious “concerns related to the functioning of the constitutional system, the independence of the judiciary and of other institutions, corruption and conflicts of interest, privacy and data protection, freedom of expression, academic freedom, freedom of religion, freedom of association, the right to equal treatment, the right of persons belonging to minorities, including Roma and Jews, the fundamental rights of migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, social rights.” The report is considered to be a sharply-worded condemnation of the Hungarian government’s systemic breach of Article 2 of the Lisbon Treaty.
Judith Sargentini /Source: media.tpo.nl
There is no need to dwell on the details here because the draft report is available on the internet. Moreover, regular readers of Hungarian Spectrum are all too familiar with the present political situation in Hungary. Instead, I will concentrate on the government and its media’s reaction to the draft report.
So far only one government official, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, commented on the event that took place in Brussels. Although the Orbán government is trying to give the impression that it doesn’t really care about the report, Szijjártó talked about it even before the members of the committee sat down for their discussion. He called it “the Soros Report,” which, in his opinion, is part of the pressure being brought to bear on Hungary after the Orbán government’s spectacular electoral victory. He declared the LIBE discussion to be “grievously anti-democratic” because yesterday the commission rejected the Hungarian government’s request to participate in the discussion. “The LIBE committee has no mandate to disregard the Hungarian people’s will.”
As for the party, Fidesz’s “communication director” Balázs Hidvéghi added that the LIBE report is the tool Brussels is using to force Hungary to accept migrants. But, he continued, the Hungarian people made it clear at the election that they don’t want Hungary to be an “immigrant country.” “The representatives of the Soros Empire in Brussels disregard the decision of the people, disrespect the results of a democratically held election, and aggressively threaten Hungary with the withholding of funds and with the implementation of Article 7.”
The government-financed Center for Basic Laws (Alapjogokért Központ) is always ready to bolster the government’s position on legal matters. In January of this year, when Judith Sargentini paid a visit to Hungary, one of the “legal experts” of the center announced that the LIBE rapporteur will get nowhere with her report on the absence of the rule of law in Hungary since there is no definition of the concept anywhere in the Union’s constitution. So, he continued, any assertion of a lack of constitutional order is arbitrary. Whatever LIBE is doing is nothing more than a political exercise.
This time, one of the Center’s shining lights informed the Hungarian public on Magyar Televízió this morning that such concepts as “democracy, rule of law, or checks and balances” are such abstract concepts that a good deal of the criticism will merely be “poking at fog” (ködszurkálás). As for the suspension of funds, it is “legal nonsense.” He argued that it is “legally offensive to make payments dependent on conditions or on such woolly concepts as democracy or the lack of the rule of law.”
A so-called political scientist, Dániel Deák, was also quoted as an expert on the subject. This young fellow, according to less than complimentary commentators, is always ready to support the government’s position on any subject in the numerous government-sponsored media outlets. Right now, he is working for Figyelő, once a highly respected economic paper but now owned by Mária Schmidt and her family. Deák simply repeated the government’s position that the Sargentini Report is part and parcel of the war against Hungary which now, after the election, has become truly vicious. An international network wants to break the back of the Orbán government because of its position on the migrant issue. He figures that if the European Union is successful and suspends the voting rights of Poland and Hungary, the evil intention of the European Union to force the compulsory quotas on member states can be achieved easily. But Deák is not worried because, in his estimation, after the EU elections the composition of the European Parliament will change dramatically. The anti-migrant forces will be in the majority. Thus, there is no need to worry about the LIBE report.
Let’s face it, the legal expert of the Center for Basic Laws might be correct: the report may be no more than “poking at fog.” We mustn’t forget about the Tavares report of 2013. I recommend reading Rui Tavares’s letter to the citizens of Hungary and his fellow European citizens, which was published in Hungarian Spectrum, explaining the purpose of his report. I also recommend taking a look at the report itself, which is available on the internet. As is obvious, the Orbán government’s policies have been at odds with the values and principles of the European Union ever since the second Orbán government was inaugurated in 2010. Yet, in eight long years, nothing of substance has been achieved to curb its anti-democratic governance. As Szijjártó said in May 2017, “we’ve had the Tavares Report, now comes the Soros Report.” He could have added, “And then what?”
