In the following video, which was recorded on April 26, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártő responds to questions after speaking to the European Parliament’s LIBE Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs about the recent general election in Hungary. For Mr. Péter Szijjártő’s earlier remarks, see this post.

Many thanks to CrossWare for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:

Video transcript:

0:00 Based on what you said, I have to draw that conclusion that in the Parliament of the

0:04 European Union, if someone reviles Hungary, that is all right;

0:08 if someone reviles the decision of the Hungarian people, that is all right;

0:12 if the Hungarian government is defamed, that is all right;

0:16 but if someone dares to talk back, that is NOT all right! That is, for me…

0:20 I think everyone who respects

0:24 democracies would refuse to accept this.

0:28 You are here…

0:32 — Just one second here! I think it is the case,

0:36 after your contribution, one of the members also

0:40 used rather emotional, inappropriate language;

0:44 that is the case, but I would like to ask —

0:48 but from your five minutes I will take 30 seconds away.

0:52 In the remaining five minutes, I would like to ask you

0:56 to try and use the sort of language

1:00 that is respectful of the Parliament;

1:04 I would like to ask that.

1:08 I am… just…

1:12 asking please — what is happening here today

1:16 is the examination of the Sargentini report.

1:20 She introduced the report nicely, and I would not like it if in the end

1:24 we end up having a huge argument here, so please concentrate

1:28 on the specific questions, and please do

1:32 that using the appropriate language. Thank you very much.

1:36 Respected Mr. President, I thought freedom of speech

1:40 and freedom of opinion applied to me also in this building,

1:44 but if this is not the case, I can live with

1:48 knowing that, too. However, I maintain my opinion — respected Mr. President — that

1:52 in this debate, Hungary was repeatedly

1:56 slandered, and I cannot accept that if someone

2:00 reacts to that, they immediately get deprecated

2:04 instead of being argued with using the facts.

2:08 Let me answer the questions raised by the representative ladies and gentlemen.

2:12 The Dutch Liberal representative woman was saying that

2:16 we only temporarily represent the Hungarian people. I would like to point out that we just won

2:20 our third consecutive term at the election,

2:24 with no less than a two-thirds super-majority!

2:28 You ask us how we represent the Hungarian people, and what kind of authorization we have.

2:32 I could also ask you what percentage of the European people

2:36 voted for you, so that you could lecture the Hungarian people

2:40 in the name of Europe. The Austrian representative

2:44 drew up an accusation against Hungary regarding

2:48 anti-Semitism. I would like to inform you, respected Mr. Representative,

2:52 that Hungary actually has a controversy with George Soros.

2:56 We disagree with — among other things — his

3:00 position on migration policies. George Soros

3:04 obviously wished that this government would not win the election.

3:08 I do not think this was a secret; he himself did not keep it a secret, either,

3:12 and it was not too hard to figure it out. But when we argue with George Soros,

3:16 we do not care about George Soros’ religion. I was not the one who brought it up —

3:20 the religion of George Soros — in this debate. The German Green party MP,

3:24 who as far as I can tell is no longer sitting here,

3:28 phrased the following accusation against us,

3:32 more precisely against Jobbik — which is not my task to defend — but I would like

3:36 bring your attention, that the opposition campaign was about nothing else except how

3:40 the Hungarian Socialist Party [MSZP, old Communists], the Democratic Coalition [DK, ex-socialists],

3:44 and the Hungarian Green Party [LMP — Liberals]

3:48 could somehow cooperate with Jobbik [neo-Nazi party] to govern together,

3:52 pushing aside differences in values, running together against the government.

3:56 After all of this, he is accusing me that my party is cooperating with Jobbik?!

4:00 The socialists and the green parties bargained with Jobbik

4:04 in the campaign for its cooperation. Respected Mr. President,

4:08 I would like to inform you regarding all of what Madame Representative

4:12 wrote in her report, this morning we sent the itemized rebuttal of it

4:16 to all representatives. For EVERY SINGLE accusation

4:20 we provided a detailed refutation. Mr. President, you asked me

4:24 about the NGOs, so please let me answer you

4:28 here and now. I think it is a legitimate expectation

4:32 of the Hungarian people that all of those organizations’

4:36 operating resources be transparent, those which

4:40 want to influence the will of the people.

4:44 This is a perfectly legitimate expectation of political parties, for example.

4:48 But it is also a legitimate expectation of

4:52 those NGOs that openly take a political role,

4:56 and which are financed from abroad, and want to influence

5:00 the opinion of the Hungarian people. I ask: why do they have to be secretive?

5:04 What kind of funds do they operate with? Why do they have to keep it a secret,

5:08 the source from which they receive their financial funding? And, Mr. President, I must refute

5:12 the idea that the Hungarian government in the prepared

5:16 or partially completed regulation would make the operation of NGOs impossible.

5:20 That is simply NOT TRUE! Respected Mr. President, we only asked that the NGOs

5:24 make it PUBLIC if they receive funding from abroad.

5:28 I do not think that for any NGO it would make

5:32 its operation impossible if on the Internet, on their homepage,

5:36 they have to display where their funding comes from!

5:40 And we insist on this, and will continue to do so in the future, too. Finally,

5:44 I would like to say that, concerning the questions about academic freedom,

5:48 in Hungary more than 20 foreign universities are operating.

5:52 Except for the CEU (Soros’ Central European University), nobody else is complaining about the new regulation.

5:56 Interestingly, you do not want to hear the other voices, only one

6:00 complaining university… There are three American universities operating in Hungary.

6:04 The agreement with one of them about our future cooperation

6:08 was signed by me personally in Maryland.

6:12 So if one American university signs the agreement, the other one complains,

6:16 I would like to ask why you only hear one of them?

6:20 Respectfully, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to repeat that I am grateful

6:24 personally to Mr. President as well that he made it possible

6:28 that in front of the European Parliament, which we hold in high regard,

6:32 we could speak, but I would like to emphasize further

6:36 that we do not accept and will not tolerate that

6:40 lies and slander are spread here about Hungary, so our itemized, detailed

6:44 rebuttals for every single accusation have been made available to you.