Anti-EU campaign: Commission takes Orbán's challenge

Jean-Claude Juncker and George Soros are in a good mood. The President of the EU Commission and the US billionaire laugh together from a poster that is currently spreading the government of Soros' country of birth Hungary. However, Juncker and Soros may find the message printed on it less funny.

"They deserve to know what Brussels wants to do!", It says in giant letters on the poster. EU officials wanted to introduce compulsory refugee quotas, weaken Member States' border management and help migrants with visas to enter the country more easily. "Brussels' migration incentive plans," adds the Hungarian government on its Facebook page, "are fundamentally threatening Hungary's security."

The truth is that the Commission has long supported a quota for accepting asylum seekers in order to relieve heavily affected countries such as Italy and Greece. However, the Commission has meanwhile moved away from this, and the plan is also clinically dead among the member countries. The rest of the Hungarian Embassy is more likely to be located in the realm of fantasy.

"Grotesque conspiracy theory"

"The Hungarians deserve facts, not fictions," the commission replied on their Twitter account. A spokesman said plans for "humanitarian visas" did not exist - that was within the competence of member states. The EU does not weaken the external borders, but strengthens them, and besides, there are not "the" in Brussels, but the EU. And Hungarians sit at their table.

Hungarians deserve facts not fiction. # TeamJunckerEU made a commitment to disinformation and this case is no exception. Hungarian government campaign beggar. It is shocking that such a ludicrous conspiracy theory has reached the mainstream to the extent it has.

It is far from the first time that Hungary's right-wing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is running anti-EU billboard campaigns, naturally funded with tax revenues. For a long time, the EU Commission has more or less inattentively watched the goings-on, not even to pay more attention to Orbán. But that seems to be over now. The Hungarian government's campaign is stunned, the commission said. "It is shocking that such a grotesque conspiracy theory has reached the mainstream to that extent."

What George Soros has to do with all this is not mentioned on the poster. In Hungary, whose inhabitants have been exposed to Orbán's Soros obsession for years, this is unlikely to be necessary. The departure of Soros' "Open Society" Foundation and the Central European University of Hungary, which he founded, also made headlines internationally.

Timmermans, a woman and the Hitler salute

AFP

Zoltán Kovács

Nevertheless, Orbán and his foreign agents still seem to be in need of extra help as far as Soros is concerned. At the end of January, a far-fetched press conference by Orbán spokesman Zoltán Kovács showed how far this has gone by. "The EU institutions are increasingly used by leftists and liberals for political purposes," Kovács said. "And according to the political conspiracy of Soros and the non-governmental organizations affiliated with it."

The central figure in all this and for years: Frans Timmermans. The vice-president of the EU Commission is not only responsible for maintaining the rule of law in the EU - a role in which he has already sharply criticized Hungary. He is also the top candidate of the Social Democrats for the European elections in May, making it even better than Orbán's target. "Timmermans acts as an arm of left-liberal Soros organizations," Kovács said. He was a leader among those "who connect the system of the EU institutions with this political conspiracy".

Meanwhile, Kovács continues. Last weekend, Timmermans appeared at a congress of Hungary's Socialist Party. But those, wrote Kovács in his blog, is now approaching the right-wing Jobbik Party. According to Kovác's conclusion, this alliance is bestowed by Timmermans on "the European Left label". Kovács garnished his blog post with a photomontage showing a grinning Timmermans together with a woman riding a man's shoulders and showing the Hitler salute.

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Poster of the hungarian government in Brussels

At the moment, Hungary does not seem to fear much from Timmermans. On Tuesday, for example, the cases against Hungary and Poland concerning breaches of EU fundamental values ​​were on the agenda of an EU ministerial meeting in Brussels. But once again little has happened. In the case of Poland, the Ministers of the other countries should have recognized the "clear risk of a serious violation of European values" - which did not happen. Hungary did not even have to undergo the necessary official hearing.

After all, there should have been criticism of Hungary's new anti-EU campaign at the meeting. The German Minister of European Affairs Michael Roth had chosen clear words, diplomats said. Whether Orbán impressed that may be doubted.

In the meantime, Timmermans can console himself with the fact that he is not the only target of Hungarian campaigns. In December, it met Guy Verhofstadt, the leader of the Liberals in the European Parliament. He was shown on billboards that allowed Hungary's government to roll through Brussels with small trucks. "Hundreds have died in terrorist attacks since 2015," it said, "and Verhofstadt says we have no migration crisis." That, it was said, "is crazy!"