“It turned out that the EU parliament found itself in a dead end in relation to the criteria of European democracy,” Orbán said. Following the example of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, he said that national parliaments should be sent to the EP in the future. Today, MEPs are elected by direct universal suffrage.
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Orbán spoke on the occasion of “Independence Day”, which the Hungarians are celebrating in connection with the departure of the last Soviet soldier from his territory on June 19, 1991.
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MEPs, the European Commission (EC) and some Member States have long expressed concern that Orbán’s government in Hungary is restricting the independence of the judiciary, the media and academic freedom. Hungary rejects objections and often uses very sharp anti-Union rhetoric.
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In 2018, the European Parliament unprecedentedly called on member states to launch EU proceedings against Budapest. In it, he asked to check whether Orbán’s government did not violate European values set by EU law. In early June, the EU Court of Justice dismissed the lawsuit that Hungary sought to challenge.
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