The European Union is doing its utmost to help the Hungarian opposition parties to an electoral victory in 2022, Justice Minister Judit Varga said at her annual hearing in the Justice Committee of the Hungarian Parliament.
“Everything is being done in Brussels to help the opposition in the 2022 election. And the pressure will only increase,” the minister predicted.
However, Varga asked: if there is so much legal certainty in Brussels, how can it be that while the Sargentini report’s method of counting votes had to wait almost three years for an EU court decision, the most important question in European legal history — whether it can tie rule of law to financial sanctions — is being pushed to be decided in an accelerated procedure.
Varga was referring to Hungary’s attempts to nullify the Sargentini report in the European Court of Justice over the fact that the methods for calculating votes during the European Parliament resolution violated procedural rules. Hungary’s government plead inter alia that the European Parliament breached 354(4) TFEU as well as Article 178(3) of its own rules and procedures when it excluded abstentions. If those abstention votes had been counted, the resolution would have never been adopted. The European Court of Justice eventually ruled against Hungary.
Varga also said no changes to the election law are planned until next year’s parliamentary elections. In her annual report, the minister specifically addressed the legislative tasks related to the epidemic situation, in the framework of which a total of 541 decrees were issued, ranging from the credit moratorium to budget transfers to the provision of court proceedings.
In this respect, she emphasized that Hungary is now at the forefront of the digitalization of justice in the world, but the epidemic has also forced the courts to apply the latest solutions.
“One of the basic principles of the government’s penal policy is that the individual has not only rights but also obligations to the community. And the perpetrator cannot have more rights than the victim,” Varga said.
