"The ECJ is obviously a political court" – Gulyás

At the government's first press briefing since Sunday's EP and municipal elections, Minister of the Prime Minister's Office Gergely Gulyás and Government Spokesperson Eszter Vitályos spent much time commenting on the election results, and also reflected on several current domestic issues.

Fidesz-KDNP did not do poorly in Sunday's elections. Their candidate for mayor of Budapest came second in a race so close that the invalid votes are being recounted, they won all the counties, and out of all the parties, Fidesz is sending the most delegates to the European Parliament.

However, their success was not complete. They lost the town of Győr and Budapest's 12th district, and although their EP list received a record number of votes, they achieved their worst ever EP election result on 9 June (44.79 percent), compared to the nearly 30 percent won by Péter Magyar and his Tisza Party, which had burst onto the scene just three months ago.

At the press briefing Gergely Gulyás thanked all those who voted for the government for participating in the elections:

"We got more votes than the second, third and fourth placed combined."

– Gulyás said, adding that the result provides a solid basis for the government both at home and abroad. Gulyás said that in many countries the government's position had been shaken, but here, in Hungary, "the voters affirmed the government's pro-peace stance". The minister said that yesterday's visit by NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg also indicated that if the people had not voted for them, Hungary "could not have stayed out of the war", which goal is a well-known slogan of government propaganda.

If Russia were to attack a NATO member state instead of NATO launching a mission to Ukraine, Hungary would of course participate in the defense, Gulyás said.

"We don't want to leave NATO," Gulyás said, but added that they feel that NATO is about to cross a line it shouldn't.

Gulyás: It was cowardly of the European Court of Justice to wait to hand down its verdict until after the elections

Gergely Gulyás said that it was a cowardly move of the European Court of Justice to wait until after the EP elections to announce its ruling (which includes a fine of 200 million euros) about Hungary’s failure to comply with the EU’s asylum laws.

According to Gulyás, the judgment exceeded the scope of the petition, because the European Commission had originally sought a smaller fine for Hungary (as previously reported, it had asked for a daily penalty of at least €5,500 for the period between the last and the current judgment and would have increased the daily fine to more than €16,000 if the government had not enforced the judgment even after the ruling.) By contrast, the court imposed 70 times the requested fine, according to Gulyás, which the minister said was reminiscent of the communist reign of terror and the Rákosi regime: a time when "the committee asked for prison and a death sentence was imposed".

The Hungarian state hasn't got the money to pay the ECJ's fine, Gulyás said, because the Hungarian state only has the taxpayers' money available. He confirmed that the government would first of all examine the ruling and see what could be done about it, since the European Court of Justice "is obviously a political court".

The European People's Party has shifted to the left

Gulyás has no plans to meet with Manfred Weber, (who will be coming to Budapest on Friday for talks with Péter Magyar about his party, TISZA joining the EPP), but as he sees it, Fidesz’ coalition partner, KDNP is on its way out of the EPP, while others, "Márki-Zay or Péter Magyar", are on their way in. He says it is clear that "the EPP has shifted to the left".

Later, Gulyás also branded the EPP as pro-war. He said it would help the group more if it entered into an alliance with what he referred to as " the real conservatives".