The policy of the Hungarian government is worrying, according to the EP decision on Russian election interference

The European Parliament (EP) calls on the political leadership of the EU and its member states to take urgent and decisive action against Russian interference attempts, the body’s statement says. The resolution voted on Thursday condemns the Kremlin’s recently revealed attempts to interfere in European legislative processes and votes. “There must be consequences for these tactics,” the lawmakers argue. The resolution finds the credible allegations that some members of the board were paid to spread Russian propaganda, and that several of them participated in the activities of the pro-Russian website Voice of Europe during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, shocking. (We wrote about the Hungarian side of the case here.)

The representatives want the leaders of the EU and the member states to deal with Russian interference attempts – not only in the EU institutions, but in the entire EU. According to them, all this must be dealt with urgently and decisively due to the upcoming EP elections on June 6-9, 2024.

In the resolution, the EP

“expresses serious concern about the many policies and positions of the Hungarian government, which, under the leadership of Prime Minister Orbán, has taken a pro-Russian or pro-China position on a number of critical occasions”, and claims that Fidesz “spreads pro-Kremlin messages and propaganda”.

The text mentions: “it is supported by credible evidence” that in 2020 Peter Pelligrini, the Prime Minister of Slovakia at the time, requested the intervention of his Hungarian colleague in order to “receive the support of the Kremlin before the 2020 Slovak parliamentary elections”. “As a result, Prime Minister Pelligrini visited Russia in February 2020, three days before the elections.” VSquare and the Ján Kuciak Investigative Center wrote an article about the case, which was published in Hungarian on Telex.

The resolution also mentions cases from other EU countries, including Bulgaria and Germany. For example, they are concerned about the recent interrogation of Maximilian Krah by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP was suspected of having received money from Kremlin agents, and his assistant was arrested a few days ago on charges of being a Chinese spy. The EP calls on the AfD to immediately make a public statement about its financial relations, especially with the Russian leadership, to disclose the purpose and exact amount of all payments from sources linked to the Kremlin. Latvian representative Tatjana Ždanoka, who was suspected of espionage, was also mentioned without mentioning her name (although she previously spoke of being an agent of peace).

According to the resolution, although Russia remains the main source of foreign interference and disinformation in the EU, other countries are also active. They can only react effectively if the EU institutions and the member states act together with a comprehensive, long-term political approach. For its own protection, the EP is asking, among other things, for thorough internal investigations and stricter vetting.

The text repeatedly mentions the Qatari bribery scandal that broke out at the end of 2022 (we wrote more about this here). On Thursday, the representatives voted on the eight EU bodies, including the EP and the ethics body supervising the European Commission and the Council of Member States, which was initiated by a committee proposal after the incident. The original draft was previously described as insufficient by the EP representatives, and they were able to make it so that the new institution would not only coordinate the rules, but also investigate individual cases and make recommendations. (Just like the previous tightening proposals, Fidesz did not support the creation of the new body either. The statement of the representative group wrote about a sham solution, because corruption cases are about criminal law and not ethical issues. Thus, according to him, compliance with ethical requirements should not be examined, because their indeterminacy is “another gives the left an instrument of blackmail motivated by party politics”.)

The resolution on foreign influence calls on the Council of Member State Governments to include Kremlin-backed media and those responsible for EU propaganda and disinformation campaigns in the next set of sanctions against Russia. (Only the ministers can decide on this unanimously.) The representatives request a reflection of the Czech government’s sanctions against Voice of Europe and Ukrainian pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk and his close associate, Artem Marcsevskii. They regret that the Voice of Europe was able to restart its activities from Kazakhstan, and call on the EU member states to ensure that it cannot be reached in the EU.

According to the parliamentary register, the resolution was adopted with 429 yes votes – including three DK members and former MSZP politician István Ujhelyi, 27 against – including five Fidesz representatives – and 48 abstentions.