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KÖVÉR: 'HUNGARY EXPOSED TO BRUTAL POWER POLITICS'

 

Hungary is a target of brutal power politics, while European Union funds are being handled “in an openly arbitrary way that can only be called highway robbery”, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér has said in an interview.
Although EU membership has still more benefits than drawbacks, the ratios have deteriorated significantly, the speaker said in an interview published in the weekly Hetek on Friday. Among the advantages, Kövér noted that over the past five years Hungary had continued to catch up with the average performance of the EU member countries. In the meantime, however, the political situation has considerably worsened, he added. Hungary is exposed to a brutal power politics, coupled with efforts “to impose obsessions and ideological dogmas on us”, the speaker said. “If we didn’t resist, very serious social consequences would ensue.” Kövér said he saw a chance of at least 50 percent of EU funding for Hungary being withheld until the Polish elections.
The ordinary European voter sees little more than the impression of constant trouble with the Polish and Hungarian governments, Kövér said. “There are concrete efforts to incite hatred in the European public against the right-wing European governments.” Asked if it had been a mistake for the Hungarian government to help broker the deal that brought European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to power in 2019, the speaker said that, unfortunately, the other candidates had been “even worse”.
Asked whether it was “absurd” that the pay rise for Hungarian teachers was made conditional on the deal between Brussels and the Hungarian government, Kövér said that the pay rise would not depend on whether or not the deal could be struck. “The salaries of teachers are being increased and will continue to be increased in the future. If we get our money from Brussels, the process will be faster, if not, it will be slower, he said. Asked whether a politician who gives priority to national sovereignty should rather support the Ukrainians against the empire-building Russians, Kövér put another question: “What if the empire-building policy is being conducted by the West against the East, and Ukraine is seen as another hopeful province of the Euro-Atlantic Empire? It is up to anyone to decide which interpretation they prefer.”
Kövér noted that the war had been unleashed by Russia. But Russia, too, had legitimate security interests, he added. As Russia is the strongest nuclear power next to the United States, “ignoring these interests is a huge mistake,” the speaker said.