October 10, 2024
For one day the Strasbourg Chamber became an arena in which, among other things, the clash between Orban and MEP Salis took place. The presence of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban transformed the usual presentation of the priorities of the rotating presidency into a heated debate, which saw the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and almost all political exponents – except Patriots, sovereignists and conservatives – lashing out against the Hungarian leader. Amid the whistles and the chorus of leftists singing “Bella Ciao”, fiery darts fly between the MEP of the Italian Left Ilaria Salis, mindful of her 15 months in the terrible prisons of Budapest, and the Hungarian leader. «United Europe was born on the ashes of Nazi-fascism as a project of international cooperation, and it is a bitter paradox to have a presidency led by someone whose goal is to dismantle the EU in the name of nationalism. Hungary, under Viktor Orban, has become an illiberal and oligarchic regime, an authoritarian ethnic state”, thundered the Italian representative, who thanks to the election to the European Parliament managed to leave the country and the harsh conditions of preventive detention .
The Eurosceptic leader’s response was not long in coming: «I find it absurd that we have to listen to the speech on the rule of law by the Honorable Ilaria Salis, who beat peaceful people with iron bars on the streets of Budapest and then talks about the State of right,” he said, raising a chorus of reactions. «Orban managed to contradict himself in the same sentence, citing the rule of law while at the same time declaring me guilty without any sentence being passed against me. Someone should remind him what the ‘rule of law’ and the principle of ‘presumption of innocence’ really mean,” Salis commented. Von der Leyen attacked the Hungarian prime minister on all fronts: Putin heavily bombed the Ukrainians throughout the summer and there are still those who continue to blame the war on the invaded people, as if the Hungarians were to blame for the invasion of 1956 – he urged him -, talk about sovereignty but have Chinese police patrol the streets and grant visas to the Russians, constituting a danger for the entire Schengen area. Instead of strengthening the Union to be more competitive, “a government in our Union is going in exactly the opposite direction, moving away from the Single Market”. By freeing smugglers you do nothing but “throw problems over your neighbor’s fence”, are the German leader’s accusations.
Only the Patriots, the Ecr conservatives and the sovereignists defend the Hungarian leader. Nicola Procaccini, co-president of Ecr, reports that he shares «several objectives of his program, such as the defense of the family against the demographic winter and the need to review the green transition», but not «his geopolitical vision», as «the alliance between China, Russia, Iran and North Korea is a threat to the West, and Europe cannot afford to ignore it». In these 14 years in power, the only brake on Orban’s action has been the European Commission, which has used the leverage of blocking European funds in the face of failure to respect the rule of law, while the fines imposed by the Court remain unpaid of EU justice. The Eurochamber has repeatedly asked to activate Article 7 of the Treaty which deprives a member state of the right to vote in the European Council, but Budapest has always managed to square off with Morawiecki’s Poland or with the compliance of other states . Manfred Weber, leader of the EPP, from which Orban was expelled, looks to the future with optimism and hopes in the new opposition leader Peter Magyar, who with his party Tisza achieved an excellent result in the last European elections. «I understand that you are nervous – he goaded him -. Just as Pavel defeated Babis in the Czech Republic and Tusk defeated Kaczynski in Poland, Tisza and Peter Magyar will defeat you in Hungary.”
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