The recently announced referendum on Hungary’s child protection law serves to deflect from the fact that the European Union will not send “a single cent” of funding to Hungary “as long as its prime minister is called Viktor Orbán”, the opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) said.
By rejecting the Hungarian government’s reconstruction plan on Tuesday, the EU had “turned off the money taps”, DK’s MEP Klára Dobrev said. Other forms of funding could go the same way, as they are subject to the same regulations, she said. Dobrev insisted that the EU was acting “to protect Hungarians” and said that “another government and regime are needed to ensure that the funds will end up with Hungarian SMEs, farmers, civil organisations and local governments.”
According to Dobrev, the prime minister is “acting in despair” and seeks to “cover up reality with pseudo-questions”. Orbán has initiated a referendum “concerning non-existent problems and non-existent enemies just to avoid having to talk about substantive issues,” Dobrev said. “Viktor Orbán surveilled his own people using dishonest and unlawful means, and the EU withholds funding so the Hungarian government cannot distribute it among its oligarchs and family members,” she said, referring to press reports on the surveillance of Hungarian journalists and opposition politicians. The “new government of the republic” after the elections next April will make all data on surveillance public, and will reopen negotiations on EU funding, she said.
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