Orban: “You are the first to think we’re fools”

Hungary’s right-wing national prime minister Viktor Orban has severely criticized Germany in the dispute over the coupling of EU money distribution to intact rule of law relationships and thus intensified the dispute with the conservative European People’s Party (EPP).

“The Germans have already asked a lot of the Hungarians in the course of history, but you are the first to consider us fools,” Orban wrote in a letter to the EPP parliamentary group leader Manfred Weber, as reported by the Hungarian news agency MTI.

Weber (CSU) had declared the day before that the planned binding of EU budget funds to legal requirements is not directed specifically against Hungary and Poland. “The truth is just the opposite,” Orban wrote.

Blockade

Hungary and Poland are currently blocking important EU budget decisions, including the € 750 billion Corona economic aid, because of the dispute over the planned punishment for violations of the rule of law.

Orban’s party Fidesz belongs to the European People’s Party (EPP), as do the German Union parties and the ÖVP. Fidesz’s EPP membership has been on hold since 2018. An EPP “Council of Wise Men” is investigating whether Fidesz’s policies are still compatible with the values ​​of the party association.

In the letter to Weber, Orban quotes several EU politicians who criticize Hungary and Poland. “The situation is clear, dear Manfred. You want to change the current legal situation and have created instruments that can be directed against Hungary and Poland at any time, ”Orban’s letter continues.

The dispute over the blockade of Hungary and Poland is likely to be one of the dominant issues
EU summit on December 10th and 11th.