The Hungarian Prime Minister has swept away criticism from the Committee of Wise Men, which is responsible for monitoring respect for the rule of law in the country, reported several media outlets on Thursday 13 June.
In a letter sent to former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schlüssel, a member of the Committee of Three Wise Men set up on 20 March with Herman Van Rompuy and Hans-Gert Pöttering when the Fidesz of the European People's Party was suspended, Viktor Orbán described the fact that Fidesz would not be committed to enforcing “European values” as “nonsense”.
He also argues that Hungarian legislation is fully in line with European laws and for this reason the Commission has not launched any “proceedings”, according to Nepszava media, citing this letter from the Prime Minister. Viktor Orbán further asserts that the independence of the Hungarian courts is guaranteed in the Constitution.
There is also no need to worry about the situation of press freedom because, apart from a consortium of titles (about 100 titles combined), there are still commercial media and left-wing newspapers critical of the government. Finally, according to him, NGOs are not disappearing from the country: 60,000 of them are still present. The Central European University (CEU) claims that it has voluntarily moved its courses to Vienna, as the government did not push it to do so. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)