Minister overseeing the Office of the Prime Minister János Lázár announced Thursday that some 1,235,000 Hungarians had responded to the government’s controversial Soros Plan national consultation. He also singled out for criticism a Hungarian judge and Belgian politician Guy Verhofstadt, leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe.
Lázár was responding to a recent tweet by Verhofstadt referring to the national consultation under way in Hungary as a “fake news campaign.” The tweet said:
PM Orban has yet again started a #fakenews campaign against the so-called “Soros Plan” for mass-immigration. It brings back memories of the darkest period of recent European history. It has an anti-Semitic sentiment, is full of lies and is unworthy of a democratic European country
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) November 14, 2017
Verhofstadt also called on the European People’s Party group, Fidesz’s European political family, to speak out against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
It’s time that the @EPPGroup speaks out against Orban. Just like @EP_President has alreadysummoned the Hungarian Ambassador #EPlenary
— Guy Verhofstadt (@guyverhofstadt) November 14, 2017
Responding to Verhofstadt’s remarks, Lázár said: “George Soros has many employees and friends in Brussels, including Guy Verhofstadt.”
Lázár also had tough words for a judge
The minister was also asked at his press conference about a recent Curia decision requiring the state and sports clubs to publicly disclose what funds were received through the government’s controversial TAO program, and how they were used.
TAO is a scheme that allows Hungarian companies to make contributions to qualified sports clubs in lieu of paying part or all of their profit taxes. Since 2011, the government has tried to do just about everything to convince the public that TAO contributions do not constitute public funds.
Anti-corruption watchdogs, such as Transparency International Hungary, have been fighting an uphill battle to compel the government to disclose more information on the program. There are concerns that there may be a connection between making TAO contributions and winning lucrative public procurement tenders.
The government has argued that TAO contributions do not constitute public funds and that disclosing details of these contributions would violate tax secrets. Needless to say, the Curia’s recent decision requiring transparency in the TAO scheme came as an affront to the government.
According to Lázár, the presiding Curia judge, András Baka, ruled the way he did because he is angry at Fidesz for removing him from his post as the president of the Hungarian Supreme Court in 2011. (Baka later took his case all the way to the European Court of Human Rights, which ruled in his favor.)
Hvg.hu asked the Curia to respond to Lázár’s remarks. According to the Curia, cases are distributed to judges based on a scheduling system and a particular judge’s expertise in certain fields of the law.