EU Officials Blackmail Nations To Crush Alternate Views - Hungary Justice Minister

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.