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The Hungarian ambassador has been summoned by the Slovak Foreign Ministry on Wednesday in reference to statements made by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. Ambassador Csaba Balogh was asked to convey to the head of Hungarian diplomacy the Slovak side’s reservations about “his interference in the Slovak election campaign and support for specific political subjects.”
Jaroslav Nad, deputy chairman of the Democrats, said that it was outrageous that Péter Szijjártó had traveled to Slovakia shortly before the early parliamentary elections without prior consultation with the Slovak Foreign Ministry. “The Slovak Foreign Ministry believes that such actions go beyond standard diplomatic communication,” the ministry said, referring to statements made by Szijjártó during his visit to southern Slovakia on September 26 and 27.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister, however, sees nothing wrong with attending a public event with the candidates of the Alliance (united Hungarian party in Slovakia) a few days before the Slovakian elections. In an interview with the newspaper Új Szó, Szijjártó said that his only goal is to have good relations between Hungary and Slovakia, but admitted that there are issues on which the two countries will never agree, and he also wants to see the Hungarian minority in Slovakia represented in the Slovak Parliament again. In the interview, he said that
he was invited to Slovakia both to inaugurate an investment project that would create jobs for local people and was financed by the Hungarian government, and to inaugurate another road link, the 38th such link between the two countries.
Speaking at the Alliance’s event, Szijjártó said that “yesterday afternoon I received a text message from my Slovak colleague asking me to ‘behave properly,’ and I would like to make my statement in this spirit.” He also said that the Hungarian government would continue to support Hungarians in Slovakia at the suggestion of the Alliance. He stressed that it was important for Hungarians in Slovakia to be represented in parliament because “without it, it is difficult to achieve results.”
The State Secretary for Bilateral Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade believes that “the Slovak Foreign Ministry is joking.” Tamás Menczer asked in a Facebook post on Thursday who is interfering in the Slovak election campaign.
The state secretary wrote that the President of the Czech Republic, Petr Pavel, has made it clear that Slovaks should not vote for Robert Fico (Direction – Slovak Social Democracy, SMER SD). Furthermore, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also stated that Slovaks should “vote for the Democrats party,” a left-wing movement led by former prime minister Eduard Heger. He continued by writing that “the absurdity is that the Democrats have presented the Dutch Prime Minister’s campaign message on their Facebook page, but protesting in the previous post, claiming that Hungary is interfering in the Slovak election campaign.” The state secretary criticized the fact that the Slovak foreign ministry did not summon the ambassadors of the Czech Republic and the Netherlands.
Via MTI, Featured image:Facebook/Szijjártó Péter