In his harsh criticism of his Visegrad 4 partners Petr Fiala had ventured out to unchartered territory.Continue reading
The greatest success of the past year was that despite the very difficult global economic situation, we did not have to give up any of our basic social policy goals and managed to preserve the country’s security, said the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office, at a panel discussion at the Rákóczi Free University.
Gergely Gulyás noted that since the previous elections in 2018, there have been many changes in world politics and the economy, and the government elected in 2022, faced completely different challenges than four years earlier.
He recalled that the positive foreign policy trend for Hungary, started in 2016, was reinforced in 2017, by the election of Donald Trump as US President, the excellent cooperation in the Visegrád Four (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia), and there were also excellent relations with larger EU countries, especially Germany. He added that
the previous leadership of these countries was ideologically closer to Hungary than those currently in government.
This situation fundamentally changed in 2020, with Covid and then the war in Ukraine, with all its economic impact and uncertainty, the minister said, adding that this had a significant effect on the “day-to-day tasks” of governance and the burdens the country had to bear.
Gulyás pointed out that in recent years there have been changes in European and world politics that have not been favorable for Hungarians.
It started with the US presidential election that brought Joe Biden’s victory, then the new leadership of the Czech Republic and Slovakia weakened the cooperation of the Visegrád Four, and then came the perception of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which divided parties and party alliances of the same values within the right-wing, the Minister highlighted.
The combined effect of all these is that we have fewer allies today than we did five or six years ago,”
Gulyás stated. He added that this trend could be reversed, a good example being Italy, where the change of government has brought a victory for conservative parties.
He stressed that the Polish elections this year are a key issue for Hungary, the importance of which can only be compared with the domestic elections.
For us, the result of the current Polish election is much more important than say, the result of the European Parliament elections in Hungary,”
Gulyás said, adding that he hoped that in time Hungary would have more allies within the European Union.
Featured photo via MTI/Vajda János