Hungary is only able to consent to the European Union’s Covid-19 Recovery Fund if the EU brings the procedure instituted against Hungary under Article 7 to a conclusion, Fidesz Vice President Katalin Novák stressed in an interview given to Die Welt on Thursday.
She highlighted that in Hungary the rule of law prevails at present, and will continue to do so also in the future. The decision adopted in Parliament limits the government’s scope for manoeuvre during the talks about the rescue package, she pointed out.
She stressed that what is happening is entirely new in the history of the EU: this Next Generation Fund is a loan which the EU is required to take out collectively and which Member States will have to guarantee. In this regard, the Hungarian Parliament set certain conditions, meaning that the arrangement must be fair and just, poorer countries cannot receive less pro rata than richer countries, and the distribution of funds cannot be tied to political conditions. “As part of this, Member States cannot be blackmailed with the concept of the rule of law that can be readily deployed as a political bludgeon,” Ms. Novák said, adding that therefore the procedure currently under way against Hungary under Article 7 must be brought to a conclusion; this condition is also laid down in the Hungarian Parliament’s resolution.
She further recalled that after 2011 all new Hungarian legislation, including the Fundamental Law had been thoroughly scrutinised and approved. The accusations levelled on the grounds of the rule of law proved to be unfounded, she pointed out. “They are starting again now,” while there are no grounds for this under EU law, she said. To this day, there is no objective set of conditions applicable to everyone which clearly defines the concept of the “rule of law,” she stressed. She added that they are fundamentally opposed to such procedures. “And we are not the only ones,” she said, mentioning Poland as an example.
She said Gergely Gulyás, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office had recently been to Berlin. He met with the Secretaries General of CDU and CSU, Paul Ziemiak and Markus Blume, and also had brief talks with Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia Armin Laschet and President of the Bundestag Wolfgang Schäuble. “These were useful meetings, conducted in the spirit of fair cooperation,” Ms. Novák said.
She also underlined that at these talks the Minister’s negotiating partners were baffled by the “hysterical” reporting in the press about the state of danger introduced in Hungary.
She recalled that during that period Mr Ziemiak phoned her to ask why Parliament had been suspended. “I told him that I was attending a parliamentary sitting just then,” the politician said. In contrast to the European Parliament, the Hungarian Parliament was in session throughout, Ms. Novák pointed out.
In the interview, she was asked about how Fidesz could cooperate as an ally within the European People’s Party. Ms. Novák said the German union parties have no interest in Fidesz leaving the European People’s Party. She also observed that the atmosphere had now changed somewhat due to the fact that “the media coverage about the state of danger in Hungary was utterly false”. Ms. Novák observed that “many started questioning that if these reports were false, then other reports critical of the situation in Hungary were perhaps also untrue”.
She drew attention to the fact that in the European People’s Party members are fighting against one another, instead of concentrating on the real opponent, and are concerning themselves too little with the central issues of the future. “We are seeking answers to the challenges of the future on the basis of the core values of the European People’s Party – but without shifting towards the left,” she pointed out. She said they want to help identify conservative, Christian democratic strategies in the areas of security, migration, digitisation, demography and the economy in the context of the relationship between the EU and nation states. “If we can achieve this within the European People’s Party, we’re happy to stay. If not, we’ll leave,” Ms. Novák said. At the same time, the perception of People’s Party membership keeps changing within Fidesz itself, she observed. “Many would have been happy to leave a long time ago,” she added.
In the interview, Ms. Novák also highlighted that we have had bad experiences with “the way some media actors manipulate reality”. She mentioned as an example the reported suspension of the Hungarian Parliament. The journalist pointed out that the introduction of a state of danger without a time limit had given rise to concern, and Hungarian media workers may have felt they had been pressurised due to the threat of penalties to be imposed for scaremongering. Fidesz’s Vice President highlighted that “authentic media form an essential part of democracy; at the same time, fake news, the distortion of reality and the concealment of unpleasant facts harm democracy”.