Péter Magyar said later that his signature had appeared on the document by mistake.
Referring to a declaration proposal submitted to the European Parliament, Fidesz MEP Csaba Dömötör said that Péter Magyar, the leader and MEP of the opposition Tisza party, “now has signed a document showing he wants the war to continue”.
“Even as peace talks are under way, the coalition of the European People’s Party and the leftists submitted a radical pro-war declaration proposal to be voted on at the [EP’s] Wednesday meeting, of which Magyar is an author,” Dömötör said.
“The text is, theoretically, about European defence, but it is the most hawkish statement yet,” Dömötör said.
Magyar and the “EPP-leftist coalition” say in the proposal that the war would have to be fought on the battlefield and call for “unconditional” military support for Ukraine.
According to Dömötör, the declaration proposal said that weapons and ammunition must be further provided for Ukraine. It calls on all member states to allocate 0.25 percent of their GDP to the cause, and for a “multi-billion budget for equipment supporting Ukraine” from the EU’s budget, he said.
Further, the authors want to lift the ban on using western weapons on Russian territory, and want to expand the training operations Europeans participate in, Dömötör said.
Meanwhile, Magyar and the “coalition” condemned Hungary’s veto at last week’s EU summit, he said.
“They don’t name Hungary but it is clear they want to pillorise the country for not wanting more war. Along those lines, they would significantly curb member states’ room for manoeuvre in defence and military issues. They are requesting to decide those matters with a two-thirds vote, rather than a unanimous one, in future, so that … those wanting peace can be ignored,” he said.
The decision also calls for scrapping national legislation “undermining the effectiveness of European defence and security”, he said.
Dömötör said “Magyar and the grand coalition of the People’s party want war … they want to spend thousands of billions on it, even though Europe has already spent the equivalent of 53,000 billion forints on that goal.”
Such an approach is a threat to the security of Hungary and Europe and to the livelihood of Hungarian families: “with a stagnating European economy, those monies will have to be taken away from other sectors such as farm subsidies,” he said.
He said Tisza MEPs “have a sort of duty to comply with the EPP’s stance. That’s the price for support from Brussels.”
Magyar said later on Wednesday that his signature had appeared on the document by mistake.
Ahead of the vote on the proposal, EP President Roberto Metsola also informed MEPs that the signature was an error which “will be remedied”.
Magyar told the EP he will request an official explanation from the EP or EPP leadership “on how my name made its way on a paper I have never signed”.
“I would like guarantees that this will never happen again. The Orbán and Fidesz propaganda has already attacked me because my name is on the decision…” he said.
