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VIENNA (Reuters) – Austrian conservatives in the European Parliament will vote in favor of a motion that Hungary has violated EU values, Austrian Conservative Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Monday.
PHOTO: Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz and Macedonian Prime Minister Zoran Zaev (not shown) attend a press conference in Skopje, Macedonia, on September 7, 2018. REUTERS / Ognen Teofilovski / File Photo
The decision is unusual for Kurz, given his close ties with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, another member of the immigration community. Kurz said he hoped to use these links to build bridges between the EU member states of the West and those of the East who clashed over immigration and other issues.
The five Austrian Conservatives represent only a tiny fraction of the two-thirds of the votes needed for the 750-seat assembly for the so-called "Article 7 procedure". This would trigger a process that could lead to sanctions such as the suspension of Hungary's voting rights.
"The (conservative) Austrian legislators will vote for us because we believe that there can be no compromise on the rule of law and democracy and it is therefore important that the accusations against Hungary be clarified" Kurz said. .
The Kurz People's Party is part of the same conservative bloc in the European Parliament as Fidesz d'Orban. Austria also holds the rotating presidency of the European Union until the end of the year.
Orban was due to address the European Parliament on Tuesday for a vote on the Article 7 procedure later this week.
His party Fidesz won a parliamentary election last April by a landslide, supported by migration policies, including a refusal to take asylum seekers resettled from the Middle East and North Africa after a wave of arrivals in Europe in 2015.
Orban has lobbied the courts, the media and non-governmental groups since taking office in 2010. Although the EU has often protested, it has largely failed to stop it in that its critics denounce it as a growing authoritarian trend.
Kurz seems to suggest, however, that other Eastern European countries should also face an Article 7 procedure.
"We must not only take a closer look at Hungary, but also the situation in Poland, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, where a journalist was recently murdered. necessary to look very closely, "he said.
Report by Francois Murphy; Edited by Matthew Mpoke Bigg
