Brussels, 26/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On 24 October, the president of the European Party of Socialists, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen, sent an open letter to Wilfried Martens, President of the European People's Party (EPP), criticising him for his participation in an anti-governmental demonstration organised by Viktor Orban, leader of the conservative right-wing party (Fidesz), on the sidelines of the demonstration in Budapest to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian revolution. Mr Rasmussen considers that Mr Martens was taking part in an anti-democratic campaign (Mr Orban, it is known, refuses to accept the result of the elections and is calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Gyurcsany).
In his immediate response by telephone to such criticism, the former Belgian prime minister asserted that Mr Orban has nothing to do with the real populists that one meets in Slovakia and Poland. Martens went on to say that he has always fought against the far right … but that Rasmussen cannot bear him to interfere in the situation of EU member states, although there is a European political space and he wishes to speak his views.
In a letter addressed to Mr Rasmussen on 25 October, Mr Martens states that he had also taken part in the official ceremony and that the Fidesz meeting had nothing anti-governmental about it. He asked whether defending a prime minster who has lied to his people is really defending democracy. He went on to say: “You suggest that the PES decision to suspend the Slovak SMER party was sending a clear message against cooperation with extreme nationalists. Are you sure about the clarity of the message? Is it not true that the 3 SMER MEPs still sit in the Socialist Group?”. Mr Martens goes on to defend Mr Orban again, asserting that there is “something wrong in the state of Hungry and we both know that the very centre of government is responsible for it”. (lg)