Hungary's first European Union Presidency starting today is considered disbelieving and even deplorable in terms of freedom standards. The foremost newspapers have publicly stated the end of the liberty under new media limits imposed by the rightwing government of Viktor Orban trough a completely undemocratic media law that puts the power in the hands of a panel of political national media board for nine years, with no representation from the opposition.

Hungary has joined the union in 2004 and is being asked to reverse the so disputed policy changes made since the mud slide on last April. Therefore, the Party of European Left condemns the recent decisions of the Hungarian government that implements undemocratic, extremist and unacceptable policies against the workers and the poor, at the same time that this country just got the presidency of the European Union.

“The systematic degradation of democratic institutions, the authoritarian review of press freedom, the weakening of trade union rights are an insult to all democrats in Europe and the world. The Hungarian right deserves neither respect nor trust and its representatives are not worthy to preside over the European Union”, declared EL President, Pierre Laurent.

The Hungarian government, which is represented with a strong two-thirds majority in parliament, has drawn up a refutation of criticisms of the media law and considered complaints as "absurd" and uninformed.

But the Hungarian Government is not alone in the implementation of these dramatic measures, as “Sarkozy, Barroso and Berlusconi support the Hungarian Prime Minister because they support the policies that flirt with the extreme right. Just as they support the neoliberal political forces that have imposed, over the recent years, policies friendly to the economic and financial international circles but that had prompted the Hungarian society to poverty and despair”, defended Pierre Laurent.

“Hungary has been a free and democratic country during the last 20 years and we don't plan to let it slip back to something entirely different on our watch", the editor of the leading paper Nepszabadsag advanced. The same newspaper published today’s front page declaring, in the EU's 23 languages: "The freedom of the press in Hungary comes to an end." The leftwing paper, Nepszava, joined by publishing a blank front page. Also, some state radio journalists have been suspended over the past week for trying to object this situation.

The Party of the European Left is in full solidarity with the Hungarian people and all Hungarian democrats who are mobilising and struggling for the emergence of an alternative in Hungary against this undemocratic government and its abuse of power.