In a recent interview with Magyar Nemzet, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó spoke about the following topics: the election results in Slovakia, EU policy issues, relations with Russia, energy security, the war in Ukraine, and good neighborly relations.
During the interview, the minister said that perhaps one of the most important things for Hungary is that Slovakia has had elections, and they have produced a result that has both advantages and disadvantages. In his view, it was an election in Hungary’s neighborhood that has resulted in an excellent chance for a stable government. Hungary’s relationship with Slovakia is of critical importance in terms of foreign policy. There are several reasons for this: first of all, Hungary has the longest border with Slovakia- 654 kilometers. Secondly, it is Hungary’s third most important trading partner, with a trade volume of EUR 17 billion last year. And thirdly, there are 460-470,000 Hungarians living there, added Péter Szijjártó.
He also maintained that the victory of Robert Fico’s SMER party in the Saturday elections is a positive thing, because Fico openly shares the views of the Hungarian government on the three most important issues: peace in Ukraine, the rejection of migration, and gender propaganda. These are three core topics that are pressing Europe today, and it is good to have an ally in the European debates, he said.
Turning the topic to ethnic minorities, he expressed some discontent: “We would have been happier if the party (Alliance, Összefogás) representing Hungarians from “the Highlands” (Hungarian phrase for the part of Slovakia that is inhabited by Hungarian ethnic minorities) had been elected to the Slovak Parliament. Unfortunately, they did not manage to do so, but at the same time, it is a commendable achievement, given that in the last decade and a half or so, neither a Hungarian party nor Hungarian party leader has ever received so many votes in the Slovak parliamentary elections,” the Foreign Minister stated during the interview.
The Minister criticized the attitude of some EU politicians: “When a patriotic politician wins an election, being part of a political family that puts the national interests first and fights against the liberal mainstream in Brussels, then the pressure, the attacks, the stigmatization, immediately comes from Brussels.
We have to see that political discourse in Europe today has sunk to the point where anyone who refuses to join Brussels’ mainstream theories, or refuses to take the European mainstream position on the Ukrainian war, is immediately labeled as if he were a spy of Moscow, a friend of Putin, a propagandist for the Russians.
Quite simply, on these issues, Brussels does not give room for reasonable democratic debates,” opined the Foreign Minister.
On the matter of Sweden’s NATO candidacy, he asked whether there was an immediate threat that makes this extremely important? Also, how compatible is a country that does not respect the sovereignty of other countries with NATO principles?, he asked, alluding to recent Swedish criticism of a number of Hungarian policy decisions.
“The main problem is that the Swedes have repeatedly insulted and offended Hungarian MPs. If they want Hungary to ratify Sweden’s accession to NATO though, we need the MP’s votes, and it is not up to the government from here. I think that a respectful approach would be crucial in this matter. What has happened here in recent years instead? Swedish politicians hundreds of kilometers to the north have constantly, in a pompous and humiliating manner, criticized Hungarian democracy, questioned the democratic nature of the Hungarian political system, and portrayed us as a dictatorship, or at least an autocratic system,” Szijjártó pointed out.
On his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a week ago, when the scandal concerning the falsification of history regarding the Revolution of 1956 was discussed, Szijjártó firmly stated: “I raised this question.
To label the Hungarian heroes of the 1956 revolution as fascists is unacceptable.
Those who fought for Hungarian freedom and Hungarian sovereignty are unquestionably real heroes.” He also mentioned that Lavrov, in his reply, maintained that in this matter Russia takes the statement made by President Vladimir Putin as authoritative, in which the Russian president called the 1956 invasion a “mistake.” However, Szijjártó has pointed out that Hungary will never fully have common ground with the Russians about the past.
Via: Magyar Nemzet, Featured image: Hungary Today.
