Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister, rejected as “insulting and deeply unjust” a critical report by Rui Tavares, a Portuguese Green MEP, on the state of fundamental rights in Hungary. The report was adopted by plenary with 370 votes in favour and 249 against, with 82 abstentions, yesterday (3 July). 

“We Hungarians do not want a Europe in which successful countries are being punished instead of applauded,” Orbán told MEPs on Tuesday. “We do not want a Europe in which our freedom is being curbed.”

The Tavares report calls on the authorities to remedy any breaches of fundamental EU values. The Hungarian government has pledged to change some but not all of the constitutional amendments that have been the subject of controversy in Hungary and abroad. Should that not happen, the Parliament’s leadership should consider asking for the launch of a procedure under article 7 of the Lisbon treaty. In theory, that could then, according to the report, lead to the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights in the Council of Ministers. The procedure has never been used.

The report also calls for the launch of a high-level group to monitor whether member states are complying with fundamental EU values.

Tavares said in the debate on Tuesday that Orbán, using his sweeping majority

in the Hungarian parliament, had pushed through changes to the constitution that moved Hungary away from the EU’s fundamental values. The constitutional amendments, he said, “resulted in a clear weakening of the system of checks and balances”.

Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberal group in the Parliament, said that Orbán had “another concept of democracy than what is in our treaties”, adding: “Your vision of democracy is that if I have a majority I can do what I want.”

Daniel Cohn-Bendit, co-leader of the Green group, said that Orbán has “no inkling that a majority has actually limitations in a democracy”.

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“Even the Hungarian people can be wrong,” he said.

Fighting talk

Orbán’s combative style, and his refusal to answer the concerns outlined point by point by José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, prompted angry exchanges between centre-left and centre-right. “You have not really been responding to the Commission. You have been ignoring the president and the vice-president [of the Commission]. You have not explained why Hungary is the only country with so many infringement procedures,” said Hannes Swoboda, leader of the Socialists and Democrats group in the Parliament. Various centre-right MEPs said that the report exceeded the powers that the Parliament had under the EU treaties and that the criticism was politically motivated.