Speaking at a Budapest conference on Monday, Hungarian ruling party MEP Tamas Deutsch described double standards as an existing and currently insurmountable phenomenon in the European Union (EU).

Speaking at the conference titled „The Age of Crises – Research Results of the Europe Project in 2021”, organised by Szazadveg Foundation, the politician stressed that

there was a layer utter personal and political idiotism behind double standards.

As an example of double standards, Tamas Deutsch cited that some people make the pro-migration argument that life is the most important thing, we cannot let people die in the Mediterranean. However, the same opinion leaders have completely different thoughts about abortion, which clearly shows that there are factors that are more important than life after all.

The MEP said that the upward-pointing phase of European cooperation had ended with the Treaty of Maastricht. National sovereignty is important for a majority of European people, he emphasized.

Mr Deutsch attributed the double standards to an all-encompassing imperial aspiration in Europe.

The last two to three years of membership in the European People’s Party was dreadful, he said. It was bad to see how this imperial aspiration dismantled a pan-European alliance, how a large community was reduced to a group which – even with some degree of generosity – could only be described as mediocre. There is no serious EPP force west of Ljubljana, he added.

The EU’s motto is „unity in diversity”, the MEP stressed. The whole cooperation started from diversity, and without respect for it, we cannot talk about the richness of Europe’s values, he said.

Based on Hungary’s recovery plan the country is eligible for 2500 billion forints (appr. 7 billion euros) to alleviate the loss caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Tamas Deutsch said, pointing out that the European Commission has no power to influence the disbursement of the sum. The game Brussels is „playing” with Hungary and Poland is one of „pure blackmail”, he said, describing Hungary’s child protection law as the reason. With the elite set aside, the Hungarian position represents the rule and not the exception, he noted.