PM Orbán says EC Vice-President should be sacked

A pro-government agrees with Prime Minister Orbán that European Commission Vice-President must step down after calling Hungary an ‘ill democracy’. A left-wing pundit, on the other hand, thinks that Ms Jourová’s criticism of the government was justified.

European Commission’s Vice-President Vera Jourová in an interview with the German weekly Der Spiegel said that Hungary is an ’ill democracy’, rather than an ’illiberal democracy’, as defined by Prime Minister Orbán. She also said that most Hungarians are not in a position to form their own opinion based on the information they receive due to the state of the media in the country. Mr Orbán said this latter sentence was an insult to the Hungarian people and urged EC President von der Leyen to remove her from her office.

In Magyar Nemzet, László Néző finds Jourová’s accusations absurd and insulting. The pro-government columnist flaty condemns Jourová’s accusations as ‘lies’ which were based on misinformation spread by NGOs orchestrated by George Soros. Néző, however, is confident that Hungarians will not fall to Jourová’s false accusations. Néző agrees with the government that Jourová should be removed from her post.

Népszava’s Tamás Rónay thinks that Jourová rather than insulting Hungarians, only criticized the government. The left-wing commentator suspects that the government reacted harshly in order to pre-empt the European Commission’s country report on rule of law compliance that will be published soon. Rónay adds that PM Orbán’s letter in which he demanded the removal of Ms Jourová is an insult to EC President von der Leyen, as it was her who appointed Jourová as Vice-President.

Tags: democracy, EU, European Commission, Orbán, rule of law