Hans-Peter Friedrich, member of the German federal parliament, leading figure of the Bavarian CSU party and former minister of interior and agriculture visited Budapest in order to meet Hungarian politicians and friends. On this occasion he gave an interview to Hungarian news portal mandiner.hu, claiming that Viktor Orbán’s government enjoys great democratic legitimacy and leads the country to the right direction.
Friedrich told that Germany is grateful to Hungary for the opening of the border in 1989, which played a vital role in the process of German reunification. Answering a question, Friedrich emphasized, that CDU and CSU have a very good relationship with Hungary’s ruling party FIDESZ. Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán will travel to Germany in the near future, paying a visit to his Bavarian counterpart Horst Seehofer. According to Hans-Peter Friedrich German-Hungarian relations are strong and stabilized regardless domestic politics, while Hungarian-Bavarian relations are fruitful in particular, he told.
Friedrich also said that he looks on the European Union as alliance of free nations, which means that Brussels shall not dictate directly the legislation of the member states. Referring to Michael Roth’s criticism, he said that although he does not agree with all the decisions of Viktor Orbán’s government, he is not concerned about Hungary. Hans-Peter Friedrich told that the hysteria in the Western media are based rather on exaggerations. Mistaking the situation in Hungary may be the result of the narrow Western knowledge on Hungary’s culture, mentality and historical developments.
source: mandiner.hu photo: merkur-online.de