IS BRUSSELS bullying Budapest? Andrea Hossó certainly thinks so. Last week Ms Hossó, a Hungarian-born economist who now works in London's financial district, wrote a blistering attack on the "bullies of Brussels" for the Daily Mail, a British Eurosceptic daily.

Insults are being heaped on the country from all quarters, she argues: the European Parliament, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe, American professors, even Dutch radio hosts. Hungary, Ms Hossó says, is facing "colonisation" in preparation for "a political environment favouring the abolition of nation states."

As such quotes suggest, this is a one-sided article, as the all the best polemics are. Take Ms Hossó's attack on foreign companies operating in Hungary. It is certainly true that the "multis", the derogatory term many Hungarians favour for large international corporations, have turned a tidy profit in Hungary over the past two decades.

But without the massive influx of foreign capital in the early 1990s the Hungarian economy would be in a far more parlous state than it is. The multis brought jobs, training, knowledge, expertise and finance to revitalise the country. And, unlike many Hungarian companies, they employ their workers on the books and pay their taxes. 

Ms Hossó's article will doubtless have been applauded by Viktor Orbán, Hungary's prime minister, who has found himself increasingly at odds with Brussels since his Fidesz party took power two years ago. In a public speech on March 15th, a national holiday, Mr Orbáncompared EU bureaucrats to Soviet apparatchiks and decried what he called “unsolicited assistance, even if it comes wearing a finely tailored suit and not in a uniform with shoulder patches”.

Mr Orbán's language was unfair: Hungary, after all, held a referendum on its European Union membership. But Hungarian concerns about national sovereignty are increasingly finding echoes across Europe as more and more citizens start to question how unelected European bodies, such as the European Commission, have become so powerful.

As Charlemagne notes in this week's print column, “the debt crisis has brought the [European] commission unprecedented powers to intrude into national economic policies. And this raises profound concerns about its legitimacy”.

Hungary is seeking a €20 billion stand-by credit line from the IMF. But the fund has said no monies will be forthcoming without the commission's approval. And that means three infringement proceedings against Hungary must be dealt with.

One of these, on a law governing the central bank, looks to have been resolved. But there remain differences over the office of data commissioner and the compulsory retirement of judges at 62.

The European Commission's demands are only the start. The Venice Commission, which advises the Council of Europe on constitutional matters, is also weighing in. The body, which was invited by Hungary to probe its new constitution, has demanded changes over judicial reform, media oversight and state recognition of churches. Its findings will feed into the EU's assessment.

Certainly there are real grounds for concern over some aspects of Hungarian democracy. Eastern Approaches has chronicled in considerable detail the government's takeover of formerly independent institutions. Only today the government nominated János Áder as president; Mr Áder, a Fidesz loyalist, may prove just as pliable as Pál Schmitt, his predecessor, who recently resigned after a plagiarism scandal.

But how many more transnational organisations would like to tell Hungary what to do?

During a recent interview with Thorborn Jagland, secretary-general of the Council of Europe, I asked him why Hungary was getting so much global attention. His answer was simply that there were rules, and that Hungary was breaking them.

Watching Mr Jagland, flanked by his battalion of advisers and press officers, each primly holding a thick dossier, it was hard not to feel that Hungary was part of a giant sausage-making machine from which there is no escape.

Some nasty regimes, however, appear to have less trouble. Consider Azerbaijan, another member of the Council of Europe. Here, journalists are frequently harassed, beaten up and blackmailed. Two have been murdered in recent years.

Azerbaijan is about to host the Eurovision song contest, at considerable human cost. Numerous homes in the capital, Baku, have been bulldozed to make way for the new arena. Mr Jagland has expressed his “concern”, but opposes a Eurovision boycott demanded by human-rights organisations. Sometimes it is not difficult to see why some Hungarians feel they are being unfairly singled out.

Sarkosan fogalmazva

Hazánk leánya, Hossó Andrea Londonban élő közgazdász ismét példát mutatott azoknak a „külföldre szakadt” honfitársainknak, akiknek balliberális csoportja mindent elkövetett és megtesz ma is, hogy hazugságokkal etesse a nyugati sajtót. 
A nagy példányszámú és népszerű Daily Mailben lerántotta a leplet az Európai Unió imperializmusáról, és arról a mocskos játékról, amelynek során mindent bírálnak, amit az Orbán-kormány tesz, még a forintot is bedöntenék, hogy nyomást gyakoroljanak Magyarországra az „európai értékek” megvédésének ürügyén. A cikk nemcsak a kettős mércét illusztrálja számos példával, de kitér arra is, hogy hazánk szinte teljesen külföldi vállalkozások kezében van, amelyek minden hasznot kivisznek az országból – mindez világosan azt a célt szolgálja, hogy egy védtelen ország megbüntetésével elriasszák a többi tagállamot a nemzetállami szuverenitás követelésétől. Persze az angolok is ébredeznek, ugyancsak a Daily Mail nagy cikkben elemzi (Az Egyesült Királyság eladó) a tényt, hogy a brit vállalatoknak több mint a felét külföldi cégek vették meg. Döbbenetes a leltár, mert szinte mindennek, aminek (még) angol neve van, spanyol, olasz, német, kanadai, arab tulajdonosa van, sőt éppen a múlt héten derült ki, hogy az új generációs atomerőművek egy részét is az az orosz cég fogja üzemeltetni, amely a csernobili katasztrófáért is felelős volt. És még a híres londoni buszok is egy spanyol vállalat birtokában vannak. A brit szabadalmak 39 százaléka is idegen kézbe került, míg az uniós átlag mindössze 13,7 százalék. S kulcsvállalatok kerültek francia, kínai, holland és amerikai fennhatóság alá, és a központok (leépítések után) ki is kerültek Angliából. Ha mindez nem lenne elég, egy amerikai lapban tudósítást olvashatunk a Nagy-Britanniát dúló fémtolvajokról, akik (akárcsak nálunk) semmit sem kímélnek, lopnak kábelt, vasúti sínt, templomtetőt, szobrokat, a kárt évente 1,2 milliárd dollárra becsülik. A tolvajok még a sírokat is kiássák, kifosztják, mert régen a koporsókat ólommal bélelték. Tavaly tíz fémtolvaj vesztette életét „munka” közben, s a cikk szerzője szerint a nagyközönség nem nagyon sajnálta őket. A jelenlegi globális rémuralom hamarosan összeomlik, a szabad rablásnak vége lesz, akár a gazemberek és rossz áruk szabad áramlásának.

Szentmihályi Szabó Péter