Verhofstadt: Hungary is more corrupt than Ukraine

“They have made more progress in the past year than any other candidate country. They have very good results, especially in the fight against corruption,” said the Belgian politician about Ukraine.

Guy Verhofstadt, the liberal member of the European Parliament, gave an interview to hvg and was asked, among other things, whether Europe can continue supporting Ukraine to the end, “can populism be pushed back in the 2024 EP elections, and who would be responsible for replacing Viktor Orbán’s regime”.

At the beginning of the conversation, the topic was the identity crisis of the European Union. “I think this is not an identity crisis, but a power crisis in the emerging new world order. I don’t think that this is an identity crisis, rather we are talking about the lack of strong European institutions” Verhofstadt insisted. He added: we live in the age of empires, we see a great power world order.

“China, India, the United States and Russia determine the course of history. And we will have no role in this if we do not create a stronger, more integrated European Union” – said the liberal EP representative.

According to him, the war strengthened the European Union in the sense that “we started to cooperate on new fronts”.

I am convinced that Europe agrees that it is necessary to stand by Ukraine in order to win the war

Verhofstadt stressed. He added: this conflict must end with a Ukrainian victory, otherwise the continent will be destabilized for decades.

Of course, Ukraine’s accession to the EU was also raised. “They have made more progress in the past year than any other candidate country.

They have very good results, especially in the fight against corruption.

Of course, this was one of the main problems, but perhaps there is a member state that is more corrupt than Ukraine. Ukraine is not in the Union, but Bulgaria and Hungary are” – said the Belgian politician.

You can listen to the entire conversation by clicking here.