The recent letter by five European parliamentary groups calling on European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to withhold post-pandemic economic recovery funds from Poland is a “stab in the back for Poland”, MEP of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party Kinga Gál said in Brussels on Tuesday. The five left-wing groups — the Socialists, the Greens, Renew Europe, the radical left GUE-NGL and the European People’s Party shifting to the left — have published the letter just when there would be a pressing need to express solidarity with Poland that is facing enormous migrant pressure along its eastern border, she told Hungarian reporters. “Instead of expressing solidarity, they are blackmailing Poland,” she said.
Gál called the letter “unacceptable” and the procedure “highly objectionable”. She added that withholding the EU funds had no legal footing as the recovery funds are not alms, but ones the member states are entitled to. Gál noted that Hungary was exposed to similar blackmail whenever it took a stand against the European mainstream. “There is not a single European parliamentary session where this issue is not raised in terms of Poland or Hungary,” she said.