"During the past two years the Hungarian government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been accused on several occasions of being in breach of fundamental rights, of endangering democracy and the freedom of the press, and of creating a situation where certain ethnic groups – the Roma, for example – could not feel safe.
These false accusations reached a watershed this past week during debates in the European Parliament on the so-called Tavares report, which accused Hungary of being in breach of EU values through recent changes in its constitutional and legal framework.
However, those formulating these allegations – both previously and in parliament last week – failed to cite even one concrete example of supposed wrongdoing to support their case. Furthermore, in most cases they turned out to be unfamiliar both with Hungarian history and with the political situation here – and it seemed they do not endeavour to know better. (...)