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'No further powers to Brussels’: Hungary’s foreign minister
calls for more sovereignty within the EU
4 Sep, 2021 15:40
Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto has called for limiting Brussels' dominance over nations on the continent. Speaking to Swiss media, he accused the EU of “extortion” and questioned its authority.
“The EU is strong when its member states are sovereign and strong themselves, and that means – no further powers to Brussels,” Szijjarto said in an interview with Swiss daily Blick. Competitiveness among member states must also be increased, the minister said, suggesting European countries should not be restrained by the membership. “We definitely don’t want the United States of Europe,” he said.
Hungary is “always the target of attacks” from Brussels, Szijjarto alleged, claiming such an attitude is the result of his country’s policies oriented toward national interests.
Hungary’s conservative government led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban is frequently criticized by the EU authorities. Its stance on the bloc’s migration policies has been a sticking point. In May, Budapest angered Brussels when it vetoed a proposed revision to a longstanding EU trade and development agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partnership countries, citing concerns over the draft’s implications for increasing ACP migration to the EU.
The EU leadership has also been particularly condemnatory over Budapest’s contentious law against LGBT propaganda, which resulted in withholding investment plans, containing grants and loans, earlier this year.
“This is extortion,” the minister told Blick, saying that “the contributions are not humanitarian donations that are paid out of generosity, but part of a contract between the EU and Hungary.”
Budapest is now “in conflict with the European Union,” the publication alleged, saying that it led the Eastern European country to seek closeness with Switzerland. While so far the two states mainly cooperate economically, Szijjarto and Swiss Vice President Ignazio Cassis aim to tighten political partnership. “Both countries value sovereignty and pride themselves on their heritage, culture and independence,” the Hungarian official said.
Suggestions that Hungary might be on its path out of the European Union have previously been put forward. Last week, a national newspaper considered to be close to the Orban government’s views, ran a headline saying, 'It is time to talk about Huxit'.
Huxit? How about a Poxit?
EU to seek daily fines against Poland over long-standing
grievances with judicial reforms
7 Sep, 2021 13:37
© Aris OIkonomou / AFP. © AFP
In a statement released on Tuesday, the EU launched a double-pronged attack on Warsaw over its judicial reform measures, with most grievances relating to Poland’s disciplinary chamber. The measures mean judges can be investigated and punished for court rulings, which Brussels and other critics have argued politicizes the justice system.
The EU’s executive body announced that it has asked its European Court of Justice to enforce “a daily penalty payment on Poland for as long as the measures imposed by the court’s order are not fully implemented.”
The Commission also sent a formal notice letter to the Central European country “for not taking the necessary measures to comply fully with the judgment of the Court of Justice… finding that Polish law on the disciplinary regime against judges is not compatible with EU law.”
Said Vice-President for Values and Transparency Věra Jourová, “Recent European Court of Justice rulings regarding the independence of Polish judges have not been fully implemented in Poland. For instance, the Disciplinary Chamber is continuing some of its activities against judges, even though all those activities were supposed to be fully suspended.”
The Deputy Justice Minister Sebastian Kaleta bashed the move on Twitter, calling it an “act of aggression” and an “unlawful attack”.
The Polish government had promised to disband the chamber on August 17 after the EU had set a deadline for mid-August for it to be scrapped. However, Warsaw pledged to continue “reforms of the judiciary”.
Hungary has also been slammed previously by the EU, with the bloc demanding greater judicial reforms, increased action against corruption and greater freedom of press. Budapest’s Minister of Justice, Judit Varga, clapped back, calling the accusations “biased, politically motivated, and factually weak”.
Poland has been implementing judicial reforms since the Law and Justice Party came to power in 2015. Including the disciplinary chamber, the reforms also changed the term length of ordinary court judges, as well as the retirement age of Supreme Court justices, resulting in the removal of 20 judges.
When you see how much damage Germany's 'centrist' government has done in the past 6 years - it's very worrisome what a left-far left coalition might have wreaked.
Merkel warns Germans against voting for left-wing government
in last speech to parliament as election nears
7 Sep 2021 16:14
© Reuters / MICHELE TANTUSSI
German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her last speech in the Bundestag before stepping down to warn against the rise of a broad left-wing coalition government, as her center-right CDU/CSU bloc falls in the polls.
In the Tuesday speech, Merkel warned Germans against voting for the center-left Social Democrats party (SPD), ahead of the upcoming general election, which will be held on September 26.
Merkel said the choice was one between a “moderate” government or one with the SPD and the Green Party, which she said would accept support from the Left Party, Politico reported.
The outcome will be “either a government consisting of the SPD and the Greens, who accept support through the Left or at least don’t rule it out … or a government led by CDU and CSU under a Chancellor Armin Laschet, a government that leads our country into the future with moderation,” she said.
When members of the German parliament began shouting at the chancellor, who were reportedly agitated by her uncommon criticism of the SPD – her coalition partners since 2013 – she said “I’m only telling the truth.”
Merkel and the CDU have governed Germany for 16 consecutive years. But her proposed replacement, Armin Laschet, and the party, have fallen in the polls in past weeks.
The SPD has emerged as the strongest political force just one month out from the election. Current polls put the SPD as favorites at 25%, while the CDU/CSU sit at 20% and the Greens at 17%.
SPD’s chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz has not ruled out a coalition with the Left Party.
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