Government office chief: Efforts to undermine Hungary again under way in Brussels

Attempts by factions in the European Parliament to shame and undermine Hungary are once again intensifying, the government office chief said on Thursday.

At his weekly news briefing, János Lázár said that a liberal EP group had recently initiated a new hearing concerning Hungary. He called on all MEPs to show Hungarians respect and refrain from insulting them.

Lázár said it could be assumed that related efforts were gaining traction due to the outsized influence of US billionaire George Soros. Next week’s cabinet meeting will discuss this issue, including how these activities affect Hungary’s reputation, he said.

At the request of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an intelligence assessment has been completed concerning Soros’s activities in Berlin and Brussels and the extent to which Soros has succeeded in influencing opinion against Hungary, Lázár noted. The report concludes that organisations linked to Soros have had a strong influence on what the European Commission had to say and do in connection with a dispute with Hungary concerning Norwegian funds, Lázár added.

Soros organisations have the capacity to influence decision-making in the EC and “this means in practice that they can insert their statements into reports connected with Hungary”.

Furthermore, former employees of Soros organisations can gain employment with these bodies, he said.

In response to a question regarding the possibility of the EU banning the “National Consultation” public survey on the so-called Soros plan, Lázár said he did not think they would succeed because this was an issue of national competence. However, he said he was surprised that politicians who claimed to be European liberals were protesting against a democratic institution. Left-wing and liberal MEPs continually “toy with” Hungary and Poland, and in Hungary’s case, the border fence has been their recurring topic. “We are ready for a debate once again,” he added.

Lázár said a sum of 51 billion forints would be allocated to the ministries of the interior and defence by year-end “in order to ensure that Hungary remains one of the safest countries in Europe and it is protected from illegal migrants”.

The government respects the decision of some large western European countries to become “immigrant countries” but it does not accept their efforts to force change on

central European countries that are “not yet immigrant countries”.

Even if these countries keep stating that mandatory quotas and migrant distribution are only “ideas”, in reality steps have been made to implement them, and negotiations are under way to import migrants from outside the EU and relocate them, Lázár said, adding that this was an example of how the European Commission “sneakily” organised the settlement of migrants.

Meanwhile, Lázár noted that the EC has criticised Hungary for not respecting the deadline for responding in the latest phase of infringement procedures. The reason for that is that the EC has “openly applied double standards” and specified “unrealistic deadlines” concerning politically sensitive matters. Hungary is asking for “equal treatment with everyone else”, he added.