Viktor Orbán Welcomes the Slovakian Prime Minister in Budapest

The Slovak Prime Minister has paid a visit to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Tuesday in Budapest. Robert Fico, who was re-elected in September last year is considered a key ally of the Hungarian government in the Central-European region. After visiting the Czech Republic in November last year, this is only the Slovak Prime Minister’s second foreign trip.

Robert Fico headed the Slovak government between 2006 and 2010, then between 2012 and 2018, when he had decided to call early elections after the murder of an investigative journalist and his girlfriend. Albeit identifying as a social democrat (SMER-SD), Fico is considered a key ally to Viktor Orbán on the European political scene. After initial tensions over some of the Slovak leader’s rhetoric concerning the Hungarian minority in Slovakia in the early 2000s, they have reconciled their positions following the 2015 migrant crisis. The two leaders have often formed a common front within the Visegrad 4 alliance in issues such as border protection, national sovereignty, European federalism and gender policy issues.

After the bilateral talks Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that relations between Hungary and Slovakia have never been as good as they are now, because the two countries are linked within the European Union in a way that strengthens each other in terms of physical, economic and energy security.

At a joint press conference with the Slovak Prime Minister, Mr Orbán stressed that the interests of Hungary and Slovakia “point in at least 99 percent in the same direction” and that sovereignty is important for both countries.

“On the Hungarian side – and I feel that there is an identity here – we are not happy with the superstate initiatives of Brussels, we are not at all happy with efforts to legitimize illegal migration, we want to protect our borders and we want to decide who we allow into our country”,

maintained Viktor Orbán.

The Hungarian prime minister thanked Robert Fico for the regular help provided by Slovak police officers in protecting Hungary’s southern borders, and said that in return Hungary would be happy to contribute to air policing in Slovak airspace from the beginning of this year.

During the joint press conference Robert Fico said that

The V4 and cooperation within the V4 has been deliberately made dysfunctional because it is obvious that when four countries are together, representing 65 million people within the EU, they can enforce things that normal individual countries cannot enforce”.

According to Fico, Slovakia and Hungary also share the same view on the future of the European Union in relation to the veto right. “If the power of veto is taken away from EU member states and fundamental political and security issues are decided by some kind of majority, that is the beginning of the end of the EU,” he said. In that case

there would be a “dictatorship of the big in relation to the small” and it would be impossible to talk about sovereignty and the protection of national interests.

The two prime ministers also discussed the necessity of nuclear energy to achieve energy self-sufficiency. In Fico’s view, “without having nuclear power plants, we will hardly be able to guarantee the citizens of either country sufficient and affordable electricity”.

Foreign and Trade minister Péter Szijjártó, who was also at the meeting with the Slovak head of government, wrote on his social media portal that “cooperation between Hungary and Slovakia is at its most successful. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in Budapest, and we are ready to continue this success story, because this is how we best serve the interests of the Hungarian and Slovak people”.

The Slovak politician was also welcomed by President Katalin Novák, who had emphasized the importance of cooperation within the Visegrad 4 alliance.

Dear Prime Minister Fico, welcome to Hungary! It is positive for our region for Slovakia to have a Prime Minister who stands up in favour of strenghtening the Visegrad Cooperation. pic.twitter.com/zFBwf04DhR

— Katalin Novák (@KatalinNovak_HU) January 16, 2024

Slovakia is one of Hungary’s largest trading partners, the above graphics show the two countries’ trading balance in million USD.

Via MTI; Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher