The European Parliament once again “shined” and approved a resolution that speaks of Hungary’s “inability” to preside over the Council of the EU. Alexandr Vondra, the leader of the SPOLU candidate for the European elections, voted against the resolution.
The new Hungarian law on sovereignty, which is supposed to prevent outside interference in national politics, was condemned in a resolution by members of the European Parliament (EP). The last resolution in this electoral period, in which the deputies evaluated the state of democracy and the observance of the values of the rule of law in Hungary, brought several serious doubts. For example, the EP fears that Hungary will not be able to preside over the Council of the EU. MEPs also called on the European Commission (EC) to reconsider its decision to unfreeze EU funds, calling the move incomprehensible.
Ten of the 21 Czech MEPs supported the resolution. All three representatives of the Pirates voted in favor (Marcel Kolaja, Markéta Gregorová and Mikuláš Peksa, Green faction), Martina Dlabajová and Dita Charanzová (independent, elected for ANO) from the Renew faction, Radka Maxová (independent, elected for ANO) from the Socialist faction, Ludek Niedermayer (TOP 09), Stanislav Polčák (STAN), Jiří Pospíšil (TOP 09) and Tomas Zdechovsky (KDU-ČSL) from the People’s Party faction of the EPP i Veronika Vrecionová (ODS) from the conservative ECR faction.
The remaining nine MEPs were against it: Kateřina Konečná (KSČM, left faction GUE/NGL), Ivan David and Hynek Blaško (both elected for the SPD), three MEPs from the conservative ECR faction (Alexander VondraEvžen Tošenovský, Jan Zahradil, all ODS) and Ondřej Knotek, Martin Hlaváček and Ondřej Kovařík (all ANO, Renew faction).
I marked in bold those MEPs who will be candidates for the TOGETHER coalition in this year’s European elections. The vote of the Czech MEPs provides only further proof that the SPOLU coalition is programmatically split, and the vote of the ODS representatives (Vondra and Vrecionová) on SPOLU’s candidate is the result of thinking that the wolf should be eaten and the goat left whole. Otherwise, I cannot explain the vote against Hungary (Vrecionová) and for Hungary (Vondra).
The European Parliament thus continues the “pressure” on Hungary, which has been ongoing since at least 2018. After the Hungarian elections in April 2022, which were again won by Viktor Orbán’s FIDESZ in coalition with the Christian Democratic People’s Party with a gain of 135 seats in the 199-member parliament, it was approved by the European Parliament a resolution that condemns “deliberate and systematic efforts by the Hungarian government to weaken the fundamental values of the Union”. News reporter Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield (Greens/EFA, FR), on the resolution on Hungary, said: “The conclusions of this report are clear and irrefutable: Hungary is not a democracy. Given the alarming rate at which the rule of law is decaying in Hungary, it was more urgent than ever for Parliament to take this position. Apart from the recognition of Fidesz’s autocratic strategy, it is unprecedented that this position has been supported by a large majority of MEPs in the European Parliament. This should be a warning signal to the Council and the Commission.”
So this is what the current EU looks like before the elections to the European Parliament. The framing of states according to who just won the elections continues. A similar scenario is now unfolding against Slovakia and was unceremoniously ended against Poland when the so-called “pro-European” forces came to power.
From the point of view of the European Parliament elections, I personally appreciate the fact that the leader of SPOLU candidate Vondra consistently stood up for Hungary. However, Zdechovský, Niedermayer and Vrecionová only confirmed that they are supporters of a progressivist policy that clearly puts the Brussels leadership of the EU far above the rights of EU members. Well, they can vote together, it’s just a question of how much this policy is tolerable for the voters of ODS and Vondra in particular. This June will show that.
