Deutsch: Left ramping up ‘anti-government smear campaign’

In a letter to MEPs, Deutsch cited a recent letter by Momentum MEP Katalin Cseh to the European Parliament in which she had said the Hungarian government had given 100 million euros to the campaign of Bosnia’s Serb leader Milorad Dodik aimed at breaking up the Western Balkan country.

Cseh said it was “disturbing” that a leaked document had indicated that Oliver Varhelyi, the EU Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement, had “openly colluded” with Dodik in attempting to breaking up Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In his letter to MEPs, Deutsch said the reports were “untrue” and should be ignored. He added, however, that the accusations made in Cseh’s letter needed to be addressed because they concerned the issue of EU enlargement in the Western Balkans.

Deutsch said both Varhelyi and Bosnia and Herzegovina’s delegation to the EU had denied the claims made by Cseh. The MEP said Varhelyi, during a visit to the Western Balkan country last November, had urged the country’s leaders to ease tensions and to refrain from rhetoric and steps that would undermine trust and state institutions.

Deutsch said Cseh’s accusations were meant to divert attention from a corruption scandal she was embroiled in.