Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has won elections and therefore is a democratic leader, far-right candidate for the Italian elections, Giorgia Meloni said on Friday (16 September), in light of a European Parliament resolution concluding Hungary can no longer be defined as a democracy.
Earlier this week in Strasbourg, EU lawmakers adopted a report underlining that the Hungarian government is undermining EU values and it has become a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy.”
But not everyone agrees.
“Orbán has won the elections, several times even by a wide margin, with all the rest of the constitutional arc lined up against him: it is a democratic system,” Meloni told the media in defence of the Hungarian prime minister.
She added that eastern models are different because until the 1990s, “we left them under the Soviet yoke”.
“And now we should give them a hand”, she said, according to EURACTIV’s partner Corriere della Sera.
EU inaction has contributed to Hungary’s 'electoral autocracy', MEPs say
EU lawmakers have condemned the bloc’s failure to confront Hungary over breaches of rule of law and values, saying that the country has become a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” and can no longer be defined as a democracy.
“If you vote on a document against Hungary, you have to do so by detailing the accusations, and this was not done,” Meloni told Radio1 show “Radio Anch’io”.
“All Hungarian parties were outraged by this document, even those who oppose Orbán. Is this really a dictatorship?” she wondered.
Meloni (Brothers of Italy – European Conservatives and Reformists – ECR) is leading a right-wing coalition with Matteo Salvini’s Lega (ID group in EU Parliament) and Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia (European People’s Party).
According to polls, her coalition is projected to prevail against a leftist coalition led by centre-left leader Enrico Letta.
However, the Italian MEPs of Lega and Brothers of Italy voted against the resolution, defending Orbán’s actions.
In an interview with EURACTIV France, MEP and chief of Rassemblement National party in the European Parliament Jean-Paul Garraud expressed his hope for a victory of Meloni in the 25 September elections.
He also said it would be an opportunity for “something larger” in the future between the far-right ID group and ECR.
French far-right sees EU-wide ‘opportunities’ after Italian elections
The French far-right hopes for a victory of Italy’s right-wing coalition led by Giorgia Meloni in the 25 September elections and seeks to seize the opportunity of something larger in the future, MEP and chief of Rassemblement National party in …
EU socialists have warned that Italy will face the risk of “Orbanisation” if Meloni comes to power.
“A radical right-wing government in Italy could open the door to an ‘Orbanisation’has of democracy in an EU-founding state,” Udo Bullmann, a German MEP from social democrat SPD and former S&D chief, told EURACTIV Italy on 31 August.
EU centre-right takes risky bet ahead of Sweden, Italy votes
The end of the much-discussed ‘grand coalitions’ between European centre-right parties and social democrats have led the European People’s Party (EPP) to search for alternatives on the right side of the political spectrum to form governments.
The elections in Sweden and …
In March 2021, Orbán’s Fidesz party left the European People Party’s (EPP) faction in the European Parliament, following strong opposition from other right-wing parties over the situation of the rule of law in Budapest.
Meloni’s statement put Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia party in a difficult position as it is an EPP member yet is running as a part of her right-wing coalition.
(Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos/Alice Taylor]
Source: euractiv.com
