Hungarian Foreign Minister demanded from Brussels to stop “Hungarian-phobia”

The European Commission needs to stop “Hungarian-phobic behaviour”. This was stated by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations of Hungary, Peter Szijjarto, during a speech on Hungarian television.

“I think the time has come for Brussels to stop their Hungarian-phobic behavior, it is clear that they are suffering from the fact that they cannot intervene in the Hungarian processes”Szijjarto noted.

According to him, such behavior of the European Commission is due to the fact that Brussels cannot “digest” the decision of the people of Hungary in the country’s parliamentary elections.

“They cannot influence the decisions of the Hungarian people… In fact, the situation is such that Brussels has problems not with specific cases, but with the Hungarian will in general”he emphasized.

Peter Szijjarto added that after the adoption of the pension reform in France without a vote in parliament and the change in the electoral law in Germany by a simple majority, it is “ridiculous” to talk about violations of the law in Hungary. The Hungarian Foreign Minister called the claims from Brussels because of the participation of Hungarian politicians in the boards of trustees of universities “false difficulties.”

“In the dispute between the European Commission and Hungary, it is not really about legal facts. If it were about them, we would have received a list, studied it properly, considered it, discussed it, of course, and accepted what we consider legal. But it’s not about that”said the minister.

According to Szijjarto, the main difficulty lies in the fact that Brussels simply cannot accept the will of the people of Hungary, who preferred a “right-wing, nationally oriented, peace-oriented, Christian-democratic, patriotic cabinet” in the elections.

“In Hungary, such a government has been in power for 13 years already. We did not win this in a lottery, people clearly expressed their will in the elections, and in Brussels they simply cannot digest and swallow this, that a right-wing, Christian-democratic government can be successful”– concluded the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry.

Earlier, the European Commission informed Budapest about the termination of funding for a number of educational institutions in Hungary under the Erasmus student exchange program, if high-ranking Hungarian politicians are on the boards of trustees of these universities. After consultations with the EC, Hungarian Minister of Regional Development Tibor Navracic said that Budapest is ready to adopt the necessary legal acts affecting the composition of boards of trustees in universities, which will help Hungarian educational institutions to continue participating in the Erasmus student exchange program.

In 2022, the European Parliament adopted a report that refers to the decline in the level of democracy in Hungary. The authors of the report pointed out that Hungary has turned into a hybrid regime of electoral autocracy. European deputies called into question the protection of freedom of speech and the issue of ensuring the independence of judges in Hungary, and also accused the country’s authorities of corruption and violation of the rights of migrants.

In addition, Hungary is one of the few Western countries that does not supply weapons to Ukraine, blames NATO for fueling the Ukrainian conflict, and maintains economic relations with Russia, advocating peace negotiations.