As the leader of the largest party group in the EU, Donald Tusk has done nothing to ease the challenges of the pandemic, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on his social media page. Mr Szijjarto opined that Tusk s latest remarks on Hungarian democracy were rooted in his own lack of success.

„It is unacceptable to call Hungarian democracy degenerate „, FM Szijjarto said in response to European People s Party President Donald Tusks s latest attack on Hungary.

Tusk criticised PM Orban s illiberal democracy, calling it „degenerate democracy” in his interview on 23 October, the anniversary of the Hungarian revolution. To support his statement, the EPP leader brought up the accusations levelled numerous times at the Hungarian government: a lack of freedom of speech and the rule of law, although he did not support those claims with any examples. Mr Tusk said that the same negative trends can be seen in Poland.

In his Facebook post, Foreign Minister Szijjarto attributed Tusk s attack to frustration over his own lack of success. „I understand that Donald Tusk took it very hard that he had been excluded from Poland s domestic politics. I also understand he took it even harder that he could not (or cannot) get back into it. I also seem to grasp the frustration he feels regarding the good cooperation of the Polish and Hungarian governments, based on our countries brotherhood which goes back centuries” Mr Szijjarto said. The foreign minister added that Mr Tusk had had the opportunity to prove himself as the president of the biggest party group in Europe, but he had done nothing to help European people face the challgenges posed by the pandemic.

„Donald Tusk has failed. As a party leader and also as a human being,” Mr Szijjarto concluded his remarks.