EU Officials Blackmail Nations to Crush Alternate Views, Hungarian Justice Minister Says

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Leaders and officials of the 27-nation European Union are blackmailing entire nations such as Hungary and Poland because of their efforts to maintain traditional conservative religious and social values, Hungarian Justice Minister Judit Varga said.

"We are experiencing a trend whereby certain nation states such as Poland and Hungary are being blackmailed [by EU officials and institutions]," Varga told a meeting at the Heritage Foundation on Monday.

The European Union was attempting to strengthen itself by advancing a neo-liberal, "progressive" ideology that included the elimination of regional and national differences and the weakening of the institutions of the traditional nation state of its constituent member countries, Varaga said.

"The European Union is building a union of hegemony of opinion. But we say diversity is as important as unity. There cannot be only one ideology in the European Union," she said.

Varga, however, expressed optimism at political trends within several major European countries as they are moving in the direction of Hungary and cited the outcome of the recent elections in Italy and the formation of a new right-wing co government in Sweden.

On October 6, Viktor Orban called on the European Union to change its misguided sanctions policy toward Russia as Europe "is slowly bleeding to death."

Earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban instructed his ruling Fidesz party lawmakers to do everything in their power to ensure that Brussels reverses course on its Russia sanctions policy before the end of the year.

Orban, who has spent months attacking Brussels over its Russia sanctions policy, said that the thousands of sanctions slapped on Moscow were unsuccessful, and the inflation and energy shortages caused by them could bring Europe to its knees. According to him, Europe needs to change its sanctions policy, because otherwise the situation will be difficult.