Karel Hirman accused the Hungarian government of trying to annex parts of Ukraine with the help of Vladimir Putin.Continue reading
Slovak Hungarian newsportal Ma7.sk reported on Slovak prime minister Eduard Heger’s comments in which he called the current relationship between the Visegrad 4 group “frosty.”
Speaking about the imposition of new sanctions against Russia during the ongoing two-day EU summit in Brussels, he expressed his opinion according to which these punitive measures are “undoubtedly working.” Heger stressed that sanctions against Russia are not at all unnecessary, as some EU leaders claim, probably hinting at Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, but on the contrary, they are very effective.
Viktor Orbán (C), Eduard Heger (R) and Rumen Radev (L) in Prague, October 6. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán
“We see that sanctions are definitely helping. What you have to understand is that they will become more and more effective as time goes on. We also see Russia coming under increasing pressure, which is why it is stepping up its hybrid warfare against Europe,” the Prime Minister remarked.
To a journalist’s question about the Visegrad 4 political coordination, Heger replied that the four heads of government (Slovakia, Poland, Czechia, Hungary) would meet in November, organized by the current Slovak presidency. Of the V4, Hungary is the only country to have a different position on the war in Ukraine, and yes, the dialogue is stalled, “frosty, you could say,” the Prime Minister said.
Heger himself certainly did not make any gestures recently that could have helped “defrosting” neighborly ties. He has appointed two of the most anti-Hungarian personalities in Slovakia into top positions in his minority government. Former publicist Karel Hirman, who has speculated in a recent article about Russian president Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán having a secret pact to annex Western parts of Ukraine to Hungary, has been appointed as a minister of economy. Heger’s new foreign minister, Rastislav Kácer, on the other hand, is a former ambassador to Hungary, who had made a very public, and equally scandalous exit from his post after Fidesz won the parliamentary elections in 2018.
Featured Image: MTI/EPA/Stephanie Lecocq
