”Timmermans Should Resign”

Hungary “has done more than anyone in Europe to combat anti-Semitism”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told a press conference on Friday, after First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans accused Hungary’s Prime Minister and the country’s government of anti-Semitism. Mr. Szijjártó rejected the accusation, calling it unfair and unacceptable.

“We introduced the National Memorial Day for the Victims of the Holocaust, have renovated synagogues not just in Hungary, but also in neighbouring countries, and have made Holocaust denial a punishable offence according to the new Penal Code. Hungary’s new Constitution, which has been placed on new foundations, guarantees the security of Hungarian Jews as part of the Hungarian nation, and the Hungarian Jewish Community can always count on the respect, friendship and protection of the Hungarian Government”, he recalled, also adding that “we have introduced a policy of zero tolerance with regard to anti-Semitism”.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister said the accusation made by Frans Timmermans is also an extreme insult to Hungary, “and if an EU official gravely insults a Member State on such an issue, then he can have no choice but to resign from office”. He called Timmermans a coward, stating the “strong and furthermore unfounded accusation” published in an interview with German liberal weekly Die Zeit was not made face-to-face to Viktor Orbán, but only later, when nobody could respond to it immediately.

In the interview, in reaction to suggestions that the Hungarian Prime Minister was “clearly anti-Semitic” in view of his calling George Soros a financial speculator in the European Parliament a few days ago, the European Commission’s First Vice-President for Fundamental Rights said that was exactly how he had understood the Prime Minister’s words and was outraged, but did not react to the comment during the debate.