Viktor Orbán's Hungarian government is "ready" to face the European Parliament and re-establish true facts as the draft Sargentini report contains "factual errors" and "lies". Sargentini's report is to be put to the vote at the plenary session on Wednesday 12 September and proposes that the EU Council trigger the Treaty Article 7 procedure on the respect of rule of law in Hungary.
This is the message given to journalists in Brussels on Monday 10 September by the spokesperson for the Hungarian government, Zoltán Kovács. Kovács furthermore accused the European Parliament and its rapporteur, Judith Sargentini MEP (Greens/EFA, Netherlands), of leading "a witch hunt" against his country. He also accused them of coming down on the Hungarian government simply because of its action "on illegal immigration".
On Tuesday 11 September, Orbán will stand in person before MEPs in Strasbourg in order to defend his action – but he will only have six to seven minutes to do so and will not have the right to reply at the end of the MEPs' debate (see EUROPE 12090). The government has nevertheless drawn up a document in which it answers the report's assertions point by point.
What is of particular concern to the Hungarian government is the fact that the Sargentini report refers to cases that have already been closed with the European Commission – for example, on the situation of the personal data supervisor in Hungary.
"What was the point of the legal dialogue with the Commission, then?" Kovács asked. He believes that by coming down on the Hungarian government, the report is "an insult" to the Hungarian people themselves.
Voting procedure. With regard to the decision-making procedure in force at the European Parliament, the Parliament's legal service has now replied to the request of the EPP Group – which wanted clarification on the voting modalities.
It has been confirmed that a two thirds majority of the votes cast, which is required in order to push through the triggering of the Article 7 procedure beyond a simple majority of positive votes, should not count the abstentions, the European Parliament spokesperson Jaume Duch said in Strasbourg on Monday afternoon.
There is not expected to be a debate in the constitutional affairs committee on Monday evening, however, as the EPP Group had also requested.
This reading of the legal service could enable Sargentini to obtain the required majority more easily. But some are predicting that the Hungarian government could contest the method and interpretation before the European Court of Justice.
The EPP Group had advocated two votes – one on Sargentini's report and the other on the specific triggering of the Article 7 procedure. But the "other groups did not share our doubts" at the conference of presidents on Thursday 6 September, an internal source from the Christian Democrat group stated.
The Hungarian government spokesperson did not meanwhile want to explain what the government would do if the European Parliament backed the Sargentini report. He simply reiterated that the ruling Fidesz Party would continue to sit in the EPP, which could furthermore benefit from "our perspective". (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)