Tamás Deutsch, an MEP of ruling Fidesz, told public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió that Brussels was “lying” when it talked about European values and protecting democracy by taking action against Poles, Hungarians, Romanians, Bulgarians and Croats over the rule of law. The bureaucrats’ real problem with the countries — Hungary and Poland in particular — was their unwillingness to yield to the demands of Brussels, he added. Deutsch slammed “Brussels” for attaching “imaginable and unimaginable conditions” to Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession, even though the two countries had fulfilled all the conditions. Meanwhile “cocky, arrogant, western member states” had stymied their Schengen membership nevertheless, he said. Referring to a bribe scandal involving a vice-president of the European Parliament, he said it was becoming clear that the European left wing was receiving “incredibly large sums of money” from beyond the EU, and he also referred to a similar case involving Hungarian left-wing opposition politicians. Meanwhile, the Fidesz MEP said, the European and Hungarian left wing were the loudest complainers when it came to highlighting external corruption and interference.