Hungary's Szijjarto Unaware of Alleged Assassination Attempt on Orban
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in an interview with RIA Novosti that he was not aware of an assassination attempt on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
Earlier, Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin revealed that Belgrade had received information that an assassination attempt was being prepared on Orban because of his position on Ukraine, Sputnik reported.
"Well, I don't know about such an attempt. But what I know about is that there are countinious attacks on us — and on the prime minister as well — in the legal, in financial and in political terms. On the prime minister, on the government, on the country," Szijjarto clarified.
According to Szijjarto, Brussels is withholding tens of billions of euros owed to Hungary because of Budapest's position on Ukraine, migration issues and gender propaganda.
"So legal, financial and political attacks are continuous on us for sure. About assassination attempt I have no information," he added.
Earlier, Orban said that Brussels was "not the boss of Hungary" and that the country would continue to defend its own point of view when discussing pan-European decisions. According to Orban, Hungary is not one of those countries that agrees to all of Brussels' demands, so Budapest will not supply weapons and allocate money to Ukraine, let migrants into the country or allow propaganda of sexual minorities in Hungarian schools.
In mid-September 2022, the European Commission proposed launching a special conditionality mechanism for Hungary to ensure the protection of the EU budget "from violations of the principles of the rule of law in Hungary." This meant freezing about 7.5 billion euros of EU funding for Budapest. This mechanism, designed to protect the community's budget from corruption, was activated for the first time in its two years of existence.
The European Commission subsequently decided to maintain its original proposal to suspend 65% of Hungary's payment obligations from certain EU common funds, although Orban claimed that Budapest had met the entire list of the Commission's demands, which concerned measures to combat corruption, increase transparency in public procurement, and strengthen the independence of the judiciary.