A left-wing defence of MEPs voting against Fidesz candidates

A left-wing commentator takes up the defence of the Hungarian Members of the European Parliament, who prevented three Fidesz nominees from being elected vice chairmen of EP subcommittees.

In 168 óra, Ákos Tóth dismisses widespread criticism of the opposition MEPs who talked their parliamentary groups into voting against Fidesz nominees for various pasts in the European Parliament. He argues that the unwritten rule which requires Hungarian MEPs to support each other’s candidacies is overwritten by political considerations. For instance, he believes that Fidesz is a Russian ally in the European Union and would thus deem it risky to elect one of its men to the post of vice chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. At any rate, Tóth continues, the European Parliament offers the Hungarian opposition a new opportunity to confront Fidesz with the support of their European allies. ‘The scene of /their/ political activities has moved much rather to Brussels, than the Hungarian Parliament’, he writes, ‘as well as to the Hungarian cities, if the opposition can win some of the key ones in October’. Brussels can be a source of messages, while those cities to be won over in the municipal elections next Autumn can provide proof that the opposition is fit to govern, Tóth concludes.

Tags: European Parliament, Fidesz, opposition