Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has delivered his traditional speech during the closing event of the Bálványos Summer Free University and Student Camp in the resort town of Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) on Saturday.Continue reading
On Friday, during a meeting with farmers in the village of Kózki Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki was asked by journalists whether he could reflect on the words of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who said that the war in Ukraine had stirred up Polish-Hungarian cooperation, which is the axis of the Visegrad 4 Group.
The Hungarian prime minister has said in a speech during a university summer camp in Romania that although the goals of both countries are the same, “the problem is on the side of the heart,” because while Hungarians look at the conflict as a war between two Slavic nations, Poles “feel that they themselves are also fighting in it.”
In his reply Mateusz Morawiecki said that
I confirm the second part of Prime Minister Orban’s statement that the paths of Hungary and Poland have diverged. The first I do not confirm, because of course Poland is not taking any part in the war in Ukraine.
He stressed that “this war is being fought by Ukrainians, supported by weapons mainly American, Polish, British, practically from all over Europe, which “helps Ukrainians to defend their sovereignty.”
After the European Union began imposing sanctions on Russia, Hungary had opposed some of the sanctions on energy resources, such as gas, oil and nuclear fuel, arguing that the country strongly dependent on imports of Russian raw materials. According to Viktor Orbán, the sanctions hit the European economy more than the Kremlin.
The political alliance has been strained ever since the 2014 Russian invasion of the Donbas region in Ukraine and that of the Crimean Peninsula. One of a number of consequences of this will be that the European Union will find it easier to impose their will on either countries, as in the past the united stance of the two Conservative governments has caused a serious head-ache in Brussels dominated by left-leaning political movements. The change to pro-EU liberal government in Prague and the shift to the left in Bratislava has also meant that the Visegrad 4 alliance has become dormant.
Featured Image: MTI/EPA-PAP/Tomasz Waszczuk