At the end of the European Parliament's debate on the Hungarian EU presidency's program, Viktor Orban was given the floor again to respond to comments.
Unfortunately, the debate has gone beyond the bounds of reason and far beyond the realm of facts. I have listened to you and most often I have heard only absurd accusations driven by party politics, which is the all too familiar propaganda,
Hungary's prime minister pointed out.
I would have been quite happy to have discussed questions other than the the Hungarian presidency's program, such as the rule of law or corruption. But unfortunately, your propaganda has not made that possible. I would have liked to be able to say that the according to the European Commission's report, Hungary has met all the requests and requirements made by the Commission in relation to the judiciary. And I would have liked to have said that if you read data published by the World Bank, rather than corruption reports funded by George Soros, you would see that Hungary is up to scratch in that regard. It is no different from your countries. If there had been a meaningful debate, I would have been happy to say that the Commission itself has found Hungary's public procurement system to be fully in line with the requirements set out. I would have been happy to be able to say that the most recent Pew Research study found that the proportion of Hungarian respondents who said they were satisfied with the state of democracy in their country was higher than that in most other European countries,
PM Orban said.
It is possibly not by chance that Hungarian voters have consistently put their trust in us at elections,
Viktor Orban noted.
"So I would have liked to say all these thing, but the debate went beyond the realm of facts, and unfortunately, the EP has become a field of cheap propaganda," he added.
Someone asked me how I feel when accusations of corruption are leveled at me and my country. I'm used to it. It's been the same for the last 35 years. Everyone knows that none of this is true, it's all left-wing propaganda. So I can cope with that quite well. Thank you for asking,
PM Orban said, adding that "However, there were some strong political points that I cannot leave without making a comment. I think MEP Daniel Freud, who is accusing Hungary of corruption, is in fact the most corrupt person, because he is paid by George Soros. It is George Soros who pays for those reports that aim to discredit Hungary. I have never seen bigger corruption in my life,"