STRASBOURG - Martin Schulz has only been in power for less than 24 hours and the new president of the European parliament is already facing a major challenge.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban invited himself to the plenary session in Strasbourg to defend what the Commission sees as an anti-democratic Constitution.
Schulz' priorities for his term and the Danish Presidency were supposed to be the main topics on the parliament's agenda. Instead, the social democrat found himself chairing a heated debate on the state of democracy in Hungary.
Hungary's Prime Minister attempted to deflect the criticism with legal and technical arguments, but failed to convince MEPs that he was respecting fundamental democratic values.
Orban's political party, Fidesz, came to power in 2010. The country has been surrounded by controversy since then, especially during the first half of last year, when it held the rotating presidency of the European Union.
