What Márton spoke about.

Mr. President, please. One of the most important common achievements of recent years is the rule of law mechanism, which is an important tool for dealing with governments such as the Orbán regime in Hungary. Even if the cause itself is not remedied. The reason is that in recent decades - EU integration or not - the countries of the periphery have not been able to catch up economically. Low wages,

Mr President, colleagues, in Putin’s Russia, the scale of political murders against opponents, critics or rivals is starting to resemble Stalin’s Great Purge in the 1930s. Navalny’s death is a hero’s death and an enormous loss for all those yearning for a free and democratic Russia. It also shows, however, the enormous challenge Putin’s opposition faces. Everyone knows why Putin’s critics fall out

Mr President, dear colleagues, the EU is facing the greatest security challenge since World War Two. While NATO remains the guarantee of its security, Europe has to demonstrate it can defend its own people, culture and values on its own, if necessary. A precondition for that is the creation of the legal framework for a European army, both at the level of the EU and the individual Member States, fo

Madam President, Europe is at war with Russia. It’s a hybrid warfare which primarily takes the form of disinformation. For almost a century, Russia has been seeking to interfere in the affairs of Europe, seeking ways to disrupt the world order. More recently, it has invested heavily into various parties on the extreme left and extreme right of the political spectrum in order to destabilise Europe.

Thank you very much for your question. My guess is only as good as yours. I’m not an investigative authority, but we are also aware of all the funds that Viktor Orbán and his oligarchs have at their disposal. We can also see that not only in Hungary, but in the whole region, they are expanding and they are building out their illiberal system in the neighbouring state very, very effectively. A good

Dear Mr President, First of all, let us state that it is extremely harmful for Hungary that, as a consequence of Orbán's policy, initiatives such as the suspension of voting rights in the Council, the withdrawal of the rotating presidency or even the withdrawal of EU funds due to the country can be taken. However, you cannot seriously think, ladies and gentlemen, honourable Commission, that while

Dear Madam President, I would just like to present three concrete examples of the rule of law situation in Hungary, which has been governed by decree for years. For political reasons, the director of the National Museum was fired, who, although he was an old Fidesz fan, gave place to an exhibition that the governing party did not like. A lecturer at a university in Budapest was dismissed because h

Mr President, I was hoping to see Ursula von der Leyen in this debate today as, when she became Commission President, she promised to build a geopolitical Commission. Now there is, after Ukraine and Nagorno-Karabakh, yet another geopolitical escalating conflict at our borders, this time in Israel and our position, as we could see from the previous debate, is very clear: there is no justification,

Madam President, I'm sorry. The greatest threat to Europe's future is the loss of its economic sovereignty and the acquisition of influence by foreign powers. Over the past decade, many manufacturing technologies have come under the exclusive dominance of Asia, especially China, without which our economies would not exist. Examples include chip production and battery production, which is fashionab

Madam President, I'm sorry. For everyone who thinks responsibly, it is clear that the protection of nature is our common task. That is why I am delighted that in recent years this issue has been brought to the table of policymakers. At the same time, fundamentalist thinking has arisen around the issue of nature conservation. Every day, the actions of extremist groups who use the cause of nature pr

Mr. President, please. When we talk about rebuilding a country, we tend to see houses, roads, bridges, maybe economic indicators in front of us. But I believe in a policy that focuses on people, on human dignity. I am sure that after defeating Russia, Europe will support Ukraine with the same exemplary cooperation in reconstruction as it did in self-defence against the occupiers. But are we prepar

Mr. President, please. I understand the outrage of European taxpayers when they see that subsidies sent to Hungary are being stolen by the Orbán system. I also understand that they do not want to fund Orbán's oligarchs, but my fellow Members, let us not pretend that this system was formed yesterday. The same thing has been going on in Hungary for 13 years and has been financed by the EU for many y

Madam President, I'm sorry. Dear Chancellor, Half a century ago, your party took a big step forward with the proclamation of Ostpolitik. As a Hungarian, I remember well the results that Germany achieved in Central and Eastern Europe. But times have changed, and now the once successful policy has led to Germany's complete surrender to Putin's Russia. And in Central Europe, they were friends with po

Mr. President, please. The mass deportation of children is a form of genocide. That is why I welcome the decision of the International Criminal Court and I believe that all civilised people should agree with it. However, the representatives of the Orbán regime, Fidesz-KDNP politicians, have no problem with Vladimir Putin's genocidal policies. They are the ones who, while calling themselves family-

Mr President, most of us are rightly appalled by the official position of Hungary on this conflict. The pro-Russian propaganda, the undisguised rooting for the aggressor by Prime Minister Orbán, and the recent visit of Foreign Minister Szijjártó to Minsk, while cynically talking about peace with the aggressor and its allied regime. However, don't let that mislead you vis-à-vis the Hungarian people

Madam President, dear colleagues, the people of Ukraine expressed unequivocally their desire to join the community of Western democracies instead of Moscow’s tyranny. Europe was right to hear that desire and grant candidate status to Ukraine. However, full membership has conditions that need to be fulfilled. Sustainable peace and stability need to be attained prior to integration in order to avoid

Madam President, I wish you a happy birthday. Dear colleagues, the autonomy of universities was perhaps the first freedom to appear in the European civilisation, and it made Europe one of the world’s most developed regions over the centuries. It paved the path to the Renaissance, Enlightenment, the great discoveries, universal rights, democracy and indeed the nation—state. Today, the freedom of un

Mr President, looking back at and evaluating the year 2022, it is fair to say that it will enter our history books as the year when, after eight decades of peace, Europe once again is engaged in an all-out war against autocratic regimes. This is the great challenge of our generation. We have to defend it at our borders in Ukraine against an authoritarian aggressor. But we also have to defend it wi

Mr President, dear colleagues, Hungary is a neighbour of Ukraine, and while the battle front is far, we see thousands of refugees fleeing their country every day. Throughout its history, Hungarians experienced what it’s like to be exposed to the aggression of mighty empires. For 150 years our ancestors defended Europe from the Ottoman Empire, determined to conquer Europe. Now it’s Ukraine defendin

Mr President, dear colleagues, dear Commissioner, migration is the EU’s greatest challenge and the gravest social crisis of all times. It is shocking to see thousands of people dying on the sea and outrageous to see smuggler networks benefiting and profiting from migration. The Commission’s proposal is far from ground—breaking, but it does help us to focus our conversations – guidelines for NGO bo

Madam President, colleagues, Ms von der Leyen was right to stress the importance of unity and solidarity. But, as she probably realises, there are some saboteurs amongst our ranks that support sanctions in Brussels, but rail against them in their home country, undermining the credibility of our alliance. While sanctions work and we are right to adopt each package so far, until this war ends EU lea

Mr President, dear colleagues, the war in the Ukraine has triggered exemplary European unity but it has also shown that Europe is powerless, which is quite remarkable if we consider the aggregate size of our national armies, the aggregate volume of our national defence budgets and the abundance of weapons systems and capacities within the EU. But now it should be clear to all of us that sanctions

Madam President, colleagues, the fact that Viktor Orbán is not here today is a confession. If he was here, he could perhaps answer the question. What are the unique circumstances faced by Hungary and no other country in Europe that justify rule by decree? In his absence, let me tell you there are no such circumstances. It serves the sole purpose of eliminating the last bulwarks of democracy. Furth

Mr President, colleagues, we are discussing a draft report that attempts to rectify a long—standing anachronism, a taboo and an absurdity: the only European institution directly elected by the people, hence attaining the highest legitimacy by democratic standards and yet stripped of its right to initiate legislation. If there ever was a justification for this farce, recent historical and geopoliti

Mr President, colleagues, the past weeks have demonstrated that Russia is not only an expansionist aggressor, but also an unreliable partner when it comes to energy supplies. It is a tragedy that it took a war of this scale for us to realise the dangers of extreme energy dependence on Russia and it is now under these circumstances that we have to find a solution. There is a solution, however. Find