Hungary did not veto the European Union’s joint statement condemning the probable electoral fraud in Venezuela. Those claiming the contrary, including Politico, are spreading “fake news,” the Hungarian Foreign Ministry declared on Tuesday, July 31st.
The ministry was forced to reply to Politico’s report from the same day, which claimed that Hungary used its veto in the EU Council to prevent it from adopting a joint resolution denouncing Nicolás Maduro’s autocratic communist regime and its use of political violence and electoral fraud to remain in power.
“It is fake news that Hungary vetoed the declaration,” Máté Paczolay, a foreign ministry spokesman said. “We waited until we received the reports from Venezuela and after studying them, we joined the joint statement of the European Union.”
The joint resolution will be formally adopted at the next Foreign Affairs Council. It’s true that the delay led to EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell releasing two separate statements under his own name—instead of on behalf of the 27 EU member states—calling for the guaranteed transparency of the electoral process and respecting the human rights of the anti-government protesters.
But it’s worth noting that MEPs belonging to Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party were also quick to condemn the fraud and Maduro’s treatment of the protesters. “We are concerned for the opposition and the Venezuelan people. They have every right to express their will for democratic change and to live in freedom,” wrote Fidesz MEP Kinga Gál, First VP of the Patriots for Europe (PfE) group in the European Parliament.
All 11 Fidesz MEPs are among the 35 Patriot lawmakers who joined the over 300 European politicians signing the Foro Madrid’s joint declaration by Monday evening—the day before Politico’s report on the alleged veto was published—refusing the recognize the ‘official’ electoral results and condemning Maduro’s “narco-communist regime” for the “misery, ruin, and anxiety” it caused in the last 25 years through its abuse of democratic principles.
