Katalin Halmai

🔥BREAKING György Matolcsy, former central bank governor and one of Viktor Orbán’s closest allies, who also served as his economy minister, has reportedly been detained on suspicion of economic fraud causing significant financial loss and using a forged private document, telex.hu reports. 2/1

‼️Népszabadság is returning on 8 October, exactly ten years after Orbán’s government shut it down. I was the paper’s Brussels correspondent when it was closed. For those of us who witnessed the destruction of Hungary’s independent press from the inside, this is a deeply personal moment. 2/1

Its return is also a powerful symbol. The newspaper shut down under Orbán is coming back in a new political era, following a change of government. Ten years after its closure, Népszabadság will return as an online news outlet and a weekly print newspaper. 2/2

@vonderleyen.ec.europa.eu: “Nothing is inevitable. Just look at Hungary. The date of 12 April will stay in our memory for a very long time. The day the Hungarian people took their future into their hands. They chose democracy. They chose Europe. They brought HUN back to the heart of our Union. 3/1

“Years of backsliding have started to be reversed. The fight against corruption and state capture is speeding up. There is real progress on fundamental rights. On academic freedom. And now, billions of euro of investment in Hungary have been unlocked.” 3/2

🌈 “Love is a fundamental right”, and in a humane Hungary everyone should be free to love whom they love and as they choose, as long as they harm no one or break no law, said PM Péter Magyar. After years of Orbán’s hateful anti-LGBTQ propaganda, his message is remarkably timely and important. 2/1

‼️There is an EU rule-of-law case that seems to have been almost forgotten. It shouldn’t be. If the Court of Justice follows the Advocate General’s opinion, the consequences for Hungary’s access to EU funds could be significant. And there is a remarkable twist: HUN now has a different government.🧵

❓What happens when enforcing the rule of law against a former government risks imposing the financial consequences on a new one which is committed to restore the #RoL? Can the EP withdraw its case because there has been a change of government? This forgotten case may yet become very important. END

‼️There is an EU rule-of-law case that seems to have been almost forgotten. It shouldn’t be. If the Court of Justice follows the Advocate General’s opinion, the consequences for Hungary’s access to EU funds could be significant. And there is a remarkable twist: HUN now has a different government.🧵

And then there is another intriguing question. More than six and a half months have now passed since the Advocate General’s opinion. Yet the Court’s publicly available calendar currently runs into early October without any judgment scheduled in this case. The case remains pending. /7

‼️There is an EU rule-of-law case that seems to have been almost forgotten. It shouldn’t be. If the Court of Justice follows the Advocate General’s opinion, the consequences for Hungary’s access to EU funds could be significant. And there is a remarkable twist: HUN now has a different government.🧵

Now comes the really awkward part. What happens if the Court follows the Advocate General? It would mean that the Commission was wrong to conclude that Hungary had fulfilled the relevant rule-of-law condition. That could reopen the question of Hungary’s access to the cohesion funds concerned. /5

‼️There is an EU rule-of-law case that seems to have been almost forgotten. It shouldn’t be. If the Court of Justice follows the Advocate General’s opinion, the consequences for Hungary’s access to EU funds could be significant. And there is a remarkable twist: HUN now has a different government.🧵

The Parliament argued that the Commission had acted prematurely. The central question is straightforward: Had Hungary actually implemented the judicial reforms required to satisfy the EU’s fundamental-rights conditions for accessing cohesion funds? AG Tamara Ćapeta’s answer was essentially: no. /3

‼️There is an EU rule-of-law case that seems to have been almost forgotten. It shouldn’t be. If the Court of Justice follows the Advocate General’s opinion, the consequences for Hungary’s access to EU funds could be significant. And there is a remarkable twist: HUN now has a different government.🧵

Hungarian PM Péter Magyar just dropped a press release after meeting EPP President Manfred Weber in Budapest. It signals a massive shift in how Budapest plans to deal with Brussels, but his strategy raises serious questions. Let’s break it down. 👇 4/1

Second - and more critical - Magyar announced Hungary will demand a refund for its daily €1M asylum fines during the next EU budget (MFF) negotiations. The running total now stands at €1 billion and counting. Using the MFF framework to wipe out legal penalties looks like political leverage. 4/3

Hungarian PM Péter Magyar just dropped a press release after meeting EPP President Manfred Weber in Budapest. It signals a massive shift in how Budapest plans to deal with Brussels, but his strategy raises serious questions. Let’s break it down. 👇 4/1

😮Foreign funding is a threat to Hungarian sovereignty — unless it goes to people on the right side of the political spectrum? 👇 Frank Füredi, leader of the MCC Brussels, a pro-Orbán NGO, says he is “happy to get money from anywhere, Americans included,” as long as there are no strings attached. 3/1

MCC Brussels was lavishly funded from Hungary under Orbán. After the government changed, the money stopped flowing, salaries went unpaid, and Frank Füredi resigned. And no Füredi says he is happy to get money from anywhere, according to @politico.eu 3/2