Tamás Deutsch, MEP of Hungary's ruling Fidesz, told MTI in Strasbourg on Wednesday that Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony has had "a direct impact" on the European Union's freezing of community funding to Hungary.

Earlier in the day, Karácsony told a press conference in the European Parliament that the EP should set up mechanisms through which businesses, municipalities and civil organisations could directly access EU funds, so that "the government should be punished rather than bodies at the local level".

Deutsch called Karácsony "infinitely cynical" and insisted that the mayor "during his long years in opposition" had "spread the most blatant lies about Hungary in the world". He also said, "These remarks served as a basis for the so-called rule of law procedures and later for freezing the funds due to Hungary." "In the hope of political gains, Karácsony used all available means to ensure that Hungary is stripped of resources," Deutsch said.

Deutsch said the municipality of Budapest operated an "agency" in Brussels headed by Benedek Javor, a former opposition politician, to "lobby with Brussels decision-makers against Hungary and the national interest."

The MEP called on Karácsony and his "allies" to "stop carping against their own homeland" and "admit that the claims that triggered the fund freeze are false". He suggested that once the funds were released, they could be used to finance "really important developments" in the capital.