In the European parliamentary (EP) elections, those political forces achieved the best results which were attacked most vehemently in recent years, or even in the weeks right before the vote, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stated at a conference in Budapest organised by the Centre for Fundamental Rights.
At the conference entitled ‘Future of the European Union – Before the Amendment of the Treaties?’, Gergely Gulyás mentioned as an example the results of the vote in Hungary, Poland, Italy and Austria.
At the same time, the Minister stressed that the EP is by far not the most important institution of the EU. The most significant political decision-making body is the European Council in which the heads of state and government determine the main direction. The European Parliament is in itself insufficient for that; at most, it is able to block the direction designated by the European Council for a while, he added.
As the most important decisions are adopted by the European Council, “we have reason to be optimistic,” Mr Gulyás said.
In his words, the next five years of the EU will not be determined primarily by strategic documents; it is therefore particularly important who will be the President of the European Commission. The Minister took the view that it will be of the utmost significance whether the EU will decide on the person of the European Commission’s leader in the lead candidate system again, because if so, then this will become almost a tradition.
Mr Gulyás said, according to the latest information, Manfred Weber will not become leader of the European Commission because he does not have the required majority. “Let us wait and see, we evidently have another day and a half or two,” he added. (At their Thursday and Friday summit, the heads of state and government of the European Union’s Member States will mainly discuss who should be given which position in European institutions.)
The Minister said the European Commission should have a president who will break with the practice of the past five years when the body operated as “a political commission”.
In his view, it was “thanks” to this that the EU failed to manage the migration crisis on the basis of what the law dictates. The European Commission – which, in theory, is meant to be the guardian of the treaties – failed to enforce the Treaties; instead, they celebrated the Member States which, in violation of the regulations, created anarchic conditions, Mr Gulyás stated, taking the view that this was partially responsible for Britain’s departure from the EU (Brexit).
He also said that a person who attacked a Member State – as Manfred Weber attacked Hungary, for instance, and voted for the Sargentini Report – cannot be given the job of president of the European Commission.
He highlighted that, without the Polish-Hungarian alliance, Hungary would have a much lesser say in EU affairs.
Left-liberals try to evaluate the outcome of the EP elections not by relying on reality and the actual situation within the Parliament, but based on the expectation which they themselves partly created, the Minister pointed out. In his words, left-liberals seek to present the fact that sovereigntists – whom they label as far-rightists – did not receive a majority as a success; however, in actual fact, the balance of power has clearly moved in the sovereigntist direction, except that this change was not on the scale of a landslide, he highlighted.
Mr Gulyás said regarding the 53 per cent majority of the Hungarian government parties that, based on the percentage of votes received, this was the best result any political formation in Hungary has achieved since 2004. He also said that today, as regards the enlargement of the EU, “it is in a worse state than the countries which intend to join”. The EU is not ready to move the process of enlargement forward, he argued.
He took the view that today there are much greater differences within Europe than ever before: up to 1989-1990, the nations of Central Europe believed that once the borders come down and the Russians leave, they may become a part of the Western European integration. Despite this, there are a great many issues – such as the issue of migration, the topic of family policy, the role of churches or the significance of Christian roots – about which Central Europeans think differently from those in the West.
Either there will be acceptance and peaceful co-existence, or “the European Union will be torn apart which will, however, harm everyone,” the Minister concluded.
Mr Gulyás also highlighted that, in his view, in most of Western Europe there is no media pluralism: those who do not observe the rules of political correctness are “destroyed immediately; they are barred from political debates for good”.
István Kovács, Strategic Director of the Centre for Fundamental Rights highlighted at the conference, inter alia, that the Hungarians have plenty of experience regarding how to fight empires, and as they have not become Turks, Germans or Slavs, they will not turn into “Brusselites” either.
Every conquering empire brought its own ideology with it, but the Hungarians resisted all pressure, came out of all ideological struggles on top, and remained Hungarians. The attempts to conquer the Hungarian people of the European empire currently in the making, too, will fail. Also today, we are engaging in this fight with good chances, he said.
Regarding green ideologies, Mr Kovács drew attention to the fact that they originally represented conservative, Christian values; however, they have been monopolised by the empire.
The stratum of society that supports us lives in the countryside, and therefore the environment is important for them. In this department we have a job to do, in this field we must show a new political direction to the whole of Europe, the institute’s strategic director warned.