Economy
Hungarian PM 'illiberal state' speech weightless for EU - Commission spokesman
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“I don’t think that our European Union membership precludes us from building an illiberal new state based on national foundations," PM Orbán said, according to the video of his speech on the government’s website.
The new Hungarian state is being organised on the foundation of a work-based state, which is not liberal in nature, Orbán told a gathering in Tusnádfürdő, Romania on Saturday. He said he is building an illiberal democracy in Hungary and that local non-government organizations are but "groups of foreign-financed political activists" that are trying to enforce foreign interests against Hungarian interests.
He listed Russia, Turkey and China as examples of “successful" nations, “none of which is liberal and some of which aren’t even democracies."
Bloomberg commented that the PM’s steps mirror those of Russia under Vladimir Putin, where NGOs that accept foreign money must register as “foreign agents." Putin orchestrated a crackdown on NGOs in 2012 after he faced the biggest street protests in more than a decade after elections.
“Orbán’s comments are very controversial and closer to what we’re used to hearing from President Putin of Russia than from a leader of a European democracy," Paul Ivan, an analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre, told Bloomberg by phone.
“It’s also an extremely bad moment to cite Russia and Turkey as examples, with Russia becoming much more imperialistic and nationalistic and with serious attacks on the freedom of speech in Turkey."
A journalist, to whom EC spokesman Jonathan Todd has previously said in an emailed response that the European Commission would not react to Viktor Orbán’s speech, asked Todd at the EC’s daily press briefing today “what does it take to the EC to react to such an attack on the fundamental values of the EU?"
Todd responded that this question “presupposes that the speech represents such an attack."
“[...] on the basis of what we’ve seen from the speech we do not have any comment," he added.
When he was read a quote by Orbán on his objective of building an illiberal state, Todd said that “Hungary is a member state of the European Union, it is a signatory of the European Union Treaty, which amongst other things all member states to uphold democratic values. We have no reason to believe on the basis of this speech to a summer camp that Hungary is going to desist from its obligations under the EU Treaty."
The new Hungarian state is being organised on the foundation of a work-based state, which is not liberal in nature, Orbán told a gathering in Tusnádfürdő, Romania on Saturday. He said he is building an illiberal democracy in Hungary and that local non-government organizations are but "groups of foreign-financed political activists" that are trying to enforce foreign interests against Hungarian interests.
He listed Russia, Turkey and China as examples of “successful" nations, “none of which is liberal and some of which aren’t even democracies."
Bloomberg commented that the PM’s steps mirror those of Russia under Vladimir Putin, where NGOs that accept foreign money must register as “foreign agents." Putin orchestrated a crackdown on NGOs in 2012 after he faced the biggest street protests in more than a decade after elections.
“Orbán’s comments are very controversial and closer to what we’re used to hearing from President Putin of Russia than from a leader of a European democracy," Paul Ivan, an analyst at the Brussels-based European Policy Centre, told Bloomberg by phone.
“It’s also an extremely bad moment to cite Russia and Turkey as examples, with Russia becoming much more imperialistic and nationalistic and with serious attacks on the freedom of speech in Turkey."
A journalist, to whom EC spokesman Jonathan Todd has previously said in an emailed response that the European Commission would not react to Viktor Orbán’s speech, asked Todd at the EC’s daily press briefing today “what does it take to the EC to react to such an attack on the fundamental values of the EU?"
Todd responded that this question “presupposes that the speech represents such an attack."
“[...] on the basis of what we’ve seen from the speech we do not have any comment," he added.
When he was read a quote by Orbán on his objective of building an illiberal state, Todd said that “Hungary is a member state of the European Union, it is a signatory of the European Union Treaty, which amongst other things all member states to uphold democratic values. We have no reason to believe on the basis of this speech to a summer camp that Hungary is going to desist from its obligations under the EU Treaty."
