“They are spreading lies, distortions and pieces of fake news about the so-called Hungarian coronavirus act”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on his Facebook page on Sunday.

Mr. Szijjártó wrote that on Friday EU member state foreign ministers had again discussed the situation that has developed because of the coronavirus pandemic. “There are only 27 of us now, but we could easily have placed a twenty-eighth chair around the virtual table: for hypocrisy”, he stated. “The terms and phrases ‘unity’, Team Europe’, ‘we must bring the EU closer to people’s hearts’ and “we are stronger together’ were repeated like mantras, while several EU colleagues had spent the whole seek happily spreading lies, distortions and pieces of fake news about the Hungarian coronavirus act”, he explained. The Minister said that on Friday he had of course confronted them with this, asking them to “first read and only then talk”. Mr. Szijjártó explained that it is obvious that none of them had actually read the legislation before making statements about it. Whereas, it isn’t at all long, just three pages, and it includes the responses to every single one of their “concerns”, he pointed out.

Since then, several EU foreign ministers have phoned Mr. Szijjártó. “We had a good discussion, and I told all of them that I will be sending them the legislation so they can read it; there will be more point talking about it after that, if there remains any point at all, that is”, the Minister wrote. “Over a thousand people are dying in Europe every day from the coronavirus epidemic, tens of thousands of people are becoming infected, and in the meantime this is not what the Finnish, Austrian, Greek, German, Danish, Luxembourgian, Dutch and Swedish Prime Minister, ministers and party chairpersons are addressing, but instead they are spending their time ‘worrying’ about who decides on the end of the state of emergency in Hungary”, Mr. Szijjártó also emphasised, however. “If we were not in the middle of a global pandemic, I’d say it was pathetic”, the Minister said in evaluation, adding: “But now that we happen to be fighting against a global pandemic, I find it more alarming”.

(MTI)