In a reader’s letter published on Politico’s website, Minister of State Zoltán Kovács rejected criticisms related to the management of the Gyöngyöspata school case and the alleged blocking of court decisions in response to an opinion article published earlier on the Brussels news portal.
The author of the article in question Zeljko Jovanovic wrote that the review request against the final and non-appealable Gyöngyöspata judgement is another attempt on the part of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to take “his campaign for total control of Hungary to a new level”.
In his letter, the Minister of State for International Communication and Relations pointed out that Mr Jovanovic is Director of the Roma Initiatives Office at the Open Society Foundations funded by George Soros who is an outspoken opponent of the Hungarian government, and that “he omits several important facts” from his writing.
Mr Kovács highlighted that the court ruling ordering the school district to pay compensation of 100 million forints in total offended the sense of justice of many in Hungary, and the government therefore proposed an alternative solution, as part of which the compensation awarded should be primarily aimed at training and education.
“Segregation in any form is bad, and we are fighting it. But the case in the town of Gyöngyöspata is not as simple as that,” he said.
He pointed out that the activist lawyers of the Chance for Children Foundation, which also receives funding from the Open Society Foundations, “pursued the case contrary to the wishes of the families involved”. He added that payment of the damages would bankrupt the local government; however, the group evidently shows little concern for the people of Gyöngyöspata or the education of their children.
“Foreign-funded activism has brought only division – not greater justice,” the Minister of State wrote in conclusion.