DK: Hungary missing out on EU funds 'due to government graft'
Opposition MPs call on government to resign at Budapest demo
Referring to press reports that the Hungarian government may be behind the spyware hacks of the devices of hundreds of Hungarian journalists, politicians and other public figures using Israeli spyware, Anna Donath, an MEP of the Momentum Movement, said: “We are living in a surveillance state”.
Gergely Arato of the Democratic Coalition said a government that spied on its own citizens was not conversant with European values. He said what was at stake in the 2022 general election was “Orban or Europe”.
Ors Tetlak of the Liberals said “those responsible … should be held accountable and this government has to go.”
Daniel Karpat Z of Jobbik said the fact that ruling party lawmakers boycotted a meeting of parliament’s national security council which abandoned earlier on Monday for the lack of a quorum was “tantamount to a confession of guilt.”
Socialist lawmaker Gergely Barandy said the Pegasus case was “another outrageous stage in the government’s ongoing efforts since 2010 to push Hungary closer to Eastern regimes.”
David Dorosz of Parbeszed said the government would “pay the price” for the scandal in next year’s election.
The demonstration started at the House of Terror Museum on Andrassy Street and marched to the Fidesz headquarters on Heroes’ Square, with the crowd carrying banners and signs, and the flags of opposition parties.
DK: Hungary missing out on EU funds ‘due to government graft’
The EU “had made it clear” that the Hungarian government may not pre-finance projects in connection with EU recovery funds not yet received, a spokesman for the party’s parliamentary group, Zoltan Varga, told an online press briefing.
The government has said that it will use state funds to finance projects until the EU money arrives.
DK said it was “warning the prime minister and his cronies that they are trying in vain to cover up the fact that they are to blame for Hungary missing out on huge sums of money.”
