Socialists not behind international attacks on media law, says deputy chair

Such claims are offensive for the foreign politicians and journalists who have spoken against the law because it suggests as if they had acted on the Socialists request and not because they wanted to defend democracy and the freedom of the press, said Laszlo Kovacs.

    Those claims are also offensive for the Socialists who have "openly acted" against the media law in Hungary rather than through instigating criticism abroad, he added.

    Kovacs also criticised the government for saying that Prime Minister Viktor Orban "defended Hungary" at the European Parliament session on Monday concerning the Hungarian presidency of the European Union. None of the MEPs attacked Hungary or its presidency programme at that session, he said.

    Commenting on Orban s remarks that he is "ready to fight," Kovacs said the task of the EU president was to represent joint interests and to achieve compromise and consensus. "If Orban wants to fight against the 26 member states, he will lose that fight very quickly because, unlike in Hungary, he cannot rely on a two-thirds majority in the EU," Kovacs added.