Hungarian FM says Brussels opposes “patriotic, conservative” Governments, calls EU’s approach towards Georgian Gov’t “unfair”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Tuesday criticised the European Union’s stance towards Georgia, calling it unfair and politically motivated.

In his remarks, Szijjártó noted that if Georgia’s opposition had won the elections last October, the EU would have celebrated the outcome as a victory for democracy.

“I think it's very unfair how the European Union is treating Georgia and its Government. The reason for that is very, very simple. In Brussels, all patriotic, conservative, right-wing Governments are being hated. In case your opposition had won the elections, Brussels would have been very happy. They would have been saying that the democracy in Georgia is in its top form. But since the outcome of elections was not according to the taste of Brussels, it was obvious that they would attack you. Same to Hungary. We have been in office for 15 years now and we have been under continuous attack for 15 years just because of carrying out patriotic, conservative, you know, policies in which we put national interest as number one”, the Hungarian Minister said.

“I think the [ruling] Georgian Dream [party] and the Georgian Government are doing a great job. The one thing is that you should not give up because of these attacks coming from Europe. You know, there will be a political change in Europe soon as well, I guess, as a consequence of the new waves starting from Washington and the patriotic and conservative Governments will get much stronger in the future. Look, yesterday I made it very clear that Hungary will continue to ensure visa-free travels for Georgian diplomatic and service passport holders”, he continued.

The Hungarian FM further noted that while Brussels exerted strong influence over EU member states, Hungary retained its sovereign decision-making power.

“We are not going to cut this regardless. The decision of the EU is that this, the right to decide, has been given back to the member states. So this is a member state competence. So we can decide on our own. There's a heavy pressure and guideline from Brussels obviously but no legal obligation and as long as there's no legal obligation we are not implementing that decision. On the other hand I have vetoed the enlisting of your politicians and the police chiefs on the sanction list because I found it very biased and on top of that I understand that no evidence has been found that there would have been an election fraud in Georgia. Our observers have given the report to us that everything went fine”, he noted.

Szijjártó also welcomed the suspension of USAID funding in Georgia, expressing his opposition to the European Commission taking control of these funds.

“It's a matter of principle. There's no reason to put any Georgian politicians on a sanction list just because of being patriotic or conservative politicians. And there's no reason to put any police officers on the list because the only reason for that by Brussels is that they are serving according to the instructions by the Georgian Government”, Szijjártó concluded.