Fidesz MEP slams EU over “witch hunt” as EP debates Hungary’s transparency bill
The European Parliament’s “witch hunt against Hungary has reached a new low” with the legislative body putting the bill on the transparency of public life on its agenda, András László, an MEP of ruling Fidesz said on Wednesday, vowing that “we will protect Hungarian interests and next year’s election from foreign meddling.”
Speaking to Hungarian journalists, László said the European People’s Party, the Socialists and the Greens, as the allies of the Hungarian opposition, had granted a request to include the transparency bill on the EP plenary session’s agenda.
He said the MEPs who had called for Wednesday afternoon’s debate were “attempting to use a bill that hasn’t even been passed by parliament yet to launch a political attack against Hungary”. “They don’t even know what its actual impact will be or what the final text will be,” László said.
“This is a new low in the European Parliament’s witch hunt that we’ve already been seeing against Hungary,” he said. “But we’ll stand up for Hungarian interests.” He said the bill was aimed at putting an end to the kind of “very direct” political interference that had been uncovered in connection with the 2022 general election.
The interference seen in 2022 “happened to benefit the parties and politicians whose European allies put Wednesday’s debate on the agenda”, he added. “We will not back down; we will protect Hungarian interests and we will protect next year’s elections from foreign meddling,” László said.
He said the “same network” that includes the DatAdat group which has since been renamed to AVSF and which had unlawfully interfered in the 2022 Hungarian general election had reappeared ahead of the first round of Poland’s presidential election. “So the network that was active in Hungary in 2022 continues to operate,” he added.
“Our clear goal is to prevent a repeat of what happened in 2022 in the 2026 election,” László said. “Instead of exposing foreign meddling after the election, we want to prevent the transfer of foreign funds supporting political activism before the election.”
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