Labour raises Orban’s spectre as Busuttil heads to EPP

The Labour Party has resurrected statements made by Opposition leader Simon Busuttil as MEP, when he defended Hungarian right-wing prime minister Viktor Orban’s government from EU sanctions.

In a terse three-liner, the PL hitched a ride on news that Busuttil was travelling to Brussels to meet colleagues from the European People’s Party ahead of the European Council, which also includes Orban’s centre-right Fidesz party.

“Busuttil is going to the EPP. What’s interesting is what he said to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban on immigration, if indeed he said something. It should be remembered that as MEP, Busuttil made several speeches defending Orban’s government.”

Orban has courted controversy over his decision to seal all Hungarian border to prevent Syrian refugees from entering the country, claiming he was defending European Christianity from Muslims, and has also opposed mandatory relocation of refugees across all member states.

In the last weeks he flexed his political muscles by employing soldiers and prison workers to build a wall at his borders, shutting off the route with a new fence along the 175-km border with Serbia, topped with barbed wire.

As Fidesz leader he has served as prime minister since 2010, when his party was elected with a massive two-thirds majority.

In 2012, Orban defended conrtoversial legal and constitutional changes in his country after the European Commission launched legal proceedings against his government’s plans to introduce new laws on the central bank, the judiciary and data protection authority.

Letters of formal notice were sent to Budapest raising concerns over the independence of the central bank and the forced retirement of judges.

The European Parliament then approved a resolution whether to activate Article 7 of the EU Treaty, which is used to investigate breaches of EU values. The resolution – tabled by centre-left and left political groups – was approved 315-263 with 49 abstentions.

It drew strong criticism from the EPP.

Busuttil had called for time for the Hungarian government to rectify its laws as allowed by the EU’s legal process but had criticised the EP resolution, saying it “undermines the Hungarian people’s trust in the EU and the credibility of the European Parliament... These actions nourish the emergence of political extremism and Euro-scepticism. This is against the interest of the EU as a whole.”