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During a podcast for the news portal Index.hu, the Hungarian Foreign Minister had reacted to recent controversial remarks by Slovakia’s liberal president, Zuzana Caputová. Although Péter Szijjártó rejected the attacks, he emphasized that Hungary’s relationship with its neighbors is well balanced.
When the reporter of the Konkrétan program had pointed out that the Slovak President Zuzana Caputová has warned that “Slovakia might turn into Hungary if they do not watch out”, and the Croatian government is blackmailing Hungary with oil pipeline transit fees, the minister only replied with a “quite brutally, yes…”
Photo: Facebook Péter Szijjártó
The journalist then suggested that the Hungarian government’s decision to release hundreds of human traffickers held in prison had provoked Austria’s ire, and joked about Romania, Hungary’s historic nemesis, being our closest ally today, Szijjártó had replied by saying that relations are actually the best with Serbia, “but we can say we have issues with everyone”.
He continued by saying that the “question now is how much of the good news we do not tell. Because we do not tell about the new border crossings, we do not tell that the Slovaks have become our second/third most important trading partners, we do not tell that Romania is our third most important trading partner”.
He also pointed out that the Hungarian petrochemical giant MOL and OTP Bank have achieved significant market successes in the majority of the neighboring countries. Szijjártó also pointed out that the Slovaks, Romanians and Croats have not joined the lawsuit against Hungary before the European Court of Justice, which was brought against us by the European Court of Justice in the case of our Child Protection Act.
As to the Slovak president’s remarks that Slovakia could become like Hungary if it is not careful, the Foreign Minister replied by saying that “they are preparing for elections there, are not they? And it is an open election. Because the former government parties, which position themselves as left-wing, but interestingly enough, agree with us on most important issues, and we agree with them, so the left-wing parties in Slovakia now have a realistic chance of winning the next parliamentary elections.
And the progressive liberal side is therefore clearly not afraid to play the Hungarian card, the Viktor Orbán card”,
the Minister claimed.
He continued by pointing out that the fact that Viktor Orbán is a benchmark on many issues in European politics today is an indisputable point: “if we look at whether, in terms of Hungary’s size, it is justified for us to be such a point of reference, then that in itself would not be a justification, but it is justified by our success story over the last few years, by our firm stance on the most important issues, and by the fact that we are successful. I prefer to take this to mean that we have to live with the fact that we have been in government for 14 years now, and there are very few in Europe, and indeed none, who can do all this with such a calm majority, so I think that we have to accept this and put a price on the fact that we will always be a point of reference”.
Slovakia’s female president, Zuzana Caputová, has in the past seldom criticized the Hungarian government due to the requirement of neutrality stemming from her office, yet she had made no secret of her political allegiances in general terms. A former associate of the George Soros supported NGO Via Iuris, she is a staunch supporter of the LGBTQ movement in her country and is aligned with the EU’s pro migration policies. Only this week the caretaker government appointed by President Caputová had signed off on a donation of 21.7 million euros for the Slovakian outlet of Soros’ Open Society Funds (OSF), with regards to which some have accused her of a conflict of interest. As is well known, the OSF and its founder were at loggerheads with the government of Viktor Orbán for years.
Featured Image: Facebook Zuzana Caputová