The dispute over Hungary’s news media legislation has become part of the controversy between centre-right and left political forces in Europe, Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Tibor Navracsics told reporters on Thursday.
Navracsics argued that at a plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday, deputies of the European People’s Party had voiced support for the Hungarian media legislation, while Socialist, Liberal and Green MEPs criticised it. He added that a discussion on the media law could be “important and useful”, but it must not compromise Hungary’s EU presidency objectives.
The deputy PM spoke following a government session, and said that participants had voiced satisfaction over the “unprecedented support” the Hungarian EU presidency programme had received at the EP session. He said he was especially glad that the four priorities – Roma integration, the Danube strategy, economic governance, and energy policy – were considered as areas of strategic importance by MEPs contributing to the debate.
