‘Hungary is fighting the good fight too’

Sir — As the Ambassador of Hungary in Ireland, allow me to express a few important thoughts regarding the article ‘EU is timidly complicit in allowing democracy to be dismantled’ by Eoin O’Malley (Sunday Independent, February 14).

We Hungarians strongly believe in freedom of speech, but we do believe there is a line that cannot be crossed and that is when you call a democratic European country — one that, with over 1,000 years of Christian heritage, has been helping to build the backbone of European values all across the continent — fascist, just because one has opposing opinions.

The Hungarian government won the three latest elections, while securing a two-thirds majority — not many countries’ governing party can boast of such support from their nationals.

Our critics are using the event of the Klubrádió to drive a story about the government cracking down on press freedom, but they will not tell you about the facts.

Such as how Klubrádió broke the rules that are laid out for all radio stations, such as that there is still a chance for it to continue operating, and that the radio station was not discriminated against — it was simply asked to follow the same rules that all radio stations have to.

The station’s rights of frequency use were not withdrawn, but were allocated for a fixed term and, since the series of infringements of rules, the automatic extension of frequency use could not be granted.

It is stated in the article that our prime minister effectively “shut the country’s premier university when it became a source of criticism of his government”.

This is an example of stating something absolutely untrue, which is even more surprising when it’s coming from an author who is an associate professor at the very university (Dublin City University) that is in constant collaboration with the Central European University (CEU).

If the Hungarian government shut down the CEU, how is it possible that it is actively working together and hosting seminars in collaboration with DCU’s Brexit Institute?

The article closes with the sentiment that “the EU looks powerless to deal with fascism within its own borders”. Hungary, even if the EU looks powerless, has always bravely stood up against every kind of adversary and political oppression, fighting for democracy and safeguarding fundamental values.

Most importantly, we Hungarians give respect but we also demand to be respected.

Manno István,

Ambassador of Hungary