\n<\/p>\n
Republican lawmakers in the United States have accused the European Union of intervening to subvert Hungary\u2019s democratic process, putting its\u00a0thumb on the scale against Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n as he seeks re-election on Sunday.<\/p>\n
New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith and\u00a0Maryland\u00a0Representative Andy Harris wrote<\/a> to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen \u2014 who controls the unelected federal branch of the European Union \u2014 accusing Brussels of using its financial and other powers to pressure Hungarian voters into backing a more pro-EU government.<\/p>\n It comes as\u00a0Prime Minister Orb\u00e1n faces his toughest re-election campaign since coming to power 16 years ago, amid economic difficulties stemming in large part from the war in neighbouring Ukraine and from financial sanctions imposed by the EU on Hungary over so-called \u201crule of law\u201d violations.<\/p>\n In total, the EU is currently withholding<\/a> around \u20ac18 billion ($21.11bn) in funds from Hungary, including for domestic legislation restricting the promotion of LGBT content on children\u2019s television and for barring lewd public demonstrations, such as gay Pride parades. Hungary is also facing the prospect<\/a> of hefty fines for refusing to take in illegal migrants from other EU countries, which Budapest has argued is a punishment for having secured its borders while others failed or refused to.<\/p>\n Republican Representatives Smith and Harris said that the EU\u2019s \u201cpersistence and timing of these measures\u2014particularly during an electoral period\u2014have reinforced perceptions that they are being applied in a politically selective manner.<\/p>\n \u201cThis perception is strengthened by the case of Poland, in which the EU put similar pressures against a conservative government \u2013 and then cynically dropped its pressures entirely as soon as a progressive government was in power in Poland, without that government having made the rule-of-law changes that the EU had previously demanded. The cumulative effect is to create the appearance that EU institutions seek to strongly shape the political environment of a member state during a democratic election,\u201d they wrote.<\/p>\n