Original article (in Montenegrin) was published on 10/01/2023
Euro-sceptics and opponents of the European Union (EU) often spread falsehoods about member states who are allegedly pursuing a Brexit scenario and leaving the EU, with the intention of undermining trust in the Union.
Recently, we have registered several posts on social media (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16) stating that Hungary has decided to leave the EU.
“Hungary has decided to withdraw from the European Union. Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced this in his New Year’s address to the citizens,” the post states, among other things.
The post also stated that Hungary has initiated the procedure of withdrawing from the EU.
“We were part of a European family, and it turned out to be an LGBT family. Parents are forced to have a child without a father and mother, and they are numbered like in the concentration camp. The Hungarian nation never agreed to this, so we are no longer on the same path as Brussels. We will immediately start the process of leaving the European Union,” the head of the Hungarian government said. In his speech, the Prime Minister touched on the economic and political reasons for this decision.
“We can and must establish relations with countries such as China, India, Russia, Iran, and Serbia. Instead, we are prohibited from buying high-tech products from them. Leaving the EU shall remove these restrictions and allow us to make independent political decisions,” Orban said. The Hungarian Parliament will begin the process of exiting the European Union on 2 January, and Hungary’s membership in the EU will end by the end of 2023. “It will be the day of our victory,” Viktor Orban concluded.
This information has also been published in foreign languages.
Indeed, the Hungarian Prime Minister often refers to the EU and its influence on the Hungarian economy and social and political events in his speeches to the public.
However, based on keyword searches from the New Year’s address on the Government’s website, it is clear that Orbán did not declare that his country was leaving the EU, neither in Hungarian nor foreign media.
On 21 December, the Hungarian Prime Minister held a traditional end-of-year press conference. Stating that the previous year was “probably the most difficult for Hungary since the fall of communism”, Orban summarized the success of 2022 in six points, the last of which relates to relations with the European Union.
“And the sixth outstanding achievement of Hungary is that we have managed to reach an agreement with the European Union. In my opinion, this is an extraordinary achievement because we had to overcome the Hungarophobia that reigns in today’s liberal world. Despite this “Hungarophobia”, we had to reach agreements that may actually be completed in the next day or two and signed by us personally”.
However, in Orban’s address, there is no allusion to leaving the EU as claimed on Facebook.
It is true that in recent months, Orban has had conflicting views with Brussels, especially regarding sanctions against Russia and the functioning of the European Parliament and the discovery of a case of corruption for which high-ranking EU officials were accused. However, the claim that the Hungarian Prime Minister has announced the withdrawal from the European Union is incorrect. It is also true that the Hungarian government, to put it mildly, does not show tolerance when it comes to the LGBTQ population, which resulted in a lawsuit by the EU against Hungary due to the controversial LGBTQ law.
Interestingly, claims that Hungary wants to leave the EU appear at the beginning of every year, so the year 2021 started with the very same claim. Even then, the Hungarian Government denied the allegations.
Due to the clear evidence that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not declare that the country would leave the European Union, we rate the posts on social networks as fake news.
The “Fake news” rating is given to an original media report (completely produced by the media that published it) that contains factually incorrect claims or information. Content that is rated as fake news can be reliably determined to have been created and disseminated with the intent to misinform the public, that is, to present a completely false claim as fact.