EU Commission First Vice President Frans Timmermans has begun openly lobbying against Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, denigrating his voters as “weak” people with a “phobia for others”.
The European Commission is an unelected body which acts as the EU’s executive and as the sole initiator of EU-level legislation, and was previously expected to maintain an at least nominally neutral, technocratic stance in relation to member-states’ national governments.
However, Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker recently changed the rules so eurocrats can openly take sides in national politics, saying he expects colleagues “to fully and personally engage with the citizens, and actively participating in the upcoming elections to the European Parliament is an integral part of this commitment.”
First Vice President Frans Timmermans, not shy about criticising conservative and national populist governments in Central Europe even before Juncker’s intervention, has been first out of the gate with a major intervention, travelling to the Hungarian capital of Budapest to lobby against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, according to Euronews — a news outlet founded by a number of European state broadcasters, which receives tens of millions in EU funds every year and routinely describes the Orbán government as “far right”.
“I think the electorate of Fidesz are proud Hungarians,” Timmermans remarked in reference to Hungary’s governing party, which won a third consecutive term with a parliamentary super-majority under Orbán last year, in a speech to the Hungarian Socialist Party Congress.
“[They] have been misled by the leadership into believing that there are enemies everywhere,” the eurocrat added, before suggesting that the Hungarian people’s tendency to vote for pro-sovereignty, anti-mass migration parties made them “weak”.
“I believe the most important thing we can do for Hungarian society is to get rid of this phobia for others. It is not making Hungary strong, it is making Hungary weak,” he asserted.
Hungary has come under renewed fire from globalist politicians and pro-migration “civil society” organisations and pressure groups recently, by following up the construction of its border fences and passage of tough anti-illegal immigration laws with a package of pro-family policies, handing mothers and families with children tax breaks in order to help the population grow naturally.
For example, Population Matters, which encourages people to have fewer children and governments to widen access to abortion services, commented: “This is insane. #Hungary’s right-wing government will exempt women with 4 or more children from paying income tax for life, alongside other incentives to increase family sizes. All while furthering their racist, anti-immigration agenda.”
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