Main Hungarian opposition Tisza Party slams Fidesz over EU funds, accuses party of corruption
MEPs of the opposition Tisza Party on Wednesday slammed the Fidesz delegation, saying “Fidesz is not interested in ensuring crucial cohesion funding for Hungarians unless they can steal from it”.
Tisza commented on the decision of the European Parliament’s regional development committee, which adopted Tisza’s first report containing guidelines on the use of cohesion funding in the 2026 EU budget. Tamás Deutsch, the leader of the Fidesz delegation and a member of the committee, was absent from the vote, the party said in a statement.
Gabriella Gerzsenyi, the report’s author, conducted “deep, multiple-round” talks with party grouping, but the Patriots for Europe EP group failed to appear at them, it said.
“Today, Hungary cannot access 1,000 billion in EU funding because of the pervasive corruption in the System of National Cooperation. In the report, we call on institutions to draft a system that would ensure that Hungarians are not punished for the sins of the government. We work every day in the EP to ensure that as much of the funding as possible makes its way directly to Hungarians entitled to it,” Gerzsenyi said, adding that the party would strive for an agreement with EU institutions over funds withheld by Brussels, should it come to power at the 2026 elections.
The statement also said that contrary to what Fidesz said in its statement, the report does not mention illegal migration. It calls for increasing cohesion funding in areas such as handling demographic challenges, support for rural areas and affordable housing, it said. The MEPs of the allied ruling Fidesz and Christian Democrats (KDNP) said in a statement issued in response that Tisza promoted the use of cohesion monies to “finance the needs of illegal migrants” and the strengthening of the “political blackmail of the rule-of-law conditionality” in the EP.
“Supporting illegal migration and the political blackmail of Hungary remains unacceptable for the MEPs of Fidesz-KDNP. We will continue to stand up against it at every forum,” the group said.
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