MEP Gyöngyösi: Orbán’s foreign policy, or the snake eating its own tail

Last week the world witnessed two events with only a few hours passing between them: first, addressing a crowd that gathered in Belgrade for the Serbian president’s campaign rally, Hungary’s foreign affairs minister Péter Szíjjártó talked about the friendship of the two nations and second, enraged Serbs, while hailing Orbán, attacked Hungarian KFOR troops. We would be hard-pressed to find a more powerful image to illustrate how dangerous Fidesz’ propaganda-driven foreign policy has become for Hungary.

At first, even until 4-5 years ago, it “only” drove a couple of leading Fidesz politicians to occasionally deliver an angry anti-Soros rant sprinkled with some anti-West slogans, which caused quite a few embarrassing moments.

By now however, it has led to a point where the Orbán government manipulates the policies of Balkan countries in the interest of Russia’s agenda, or supports and even funds far-right politicians in Western Europe.

Last week’s incident in Kosovo clearly shows how these efforts are in conflict with the goals of the alliance Hungary is a member of. Just a few hours after Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szíjjártó attended his fellow-illiberal Serbian president’s campaign rally and read out a Serbian text to hail the newly-found friendship between Hungarians and Serbs (which is rather based on the relations between two illiberal politicians, in fact), ethnic Serbian extremists in North Kosovo, incited by the Serbian government, attacked Hungarian KFOR troops with Molotov cocktails and firearms, while hailing Orbán.

Twenty Hungarian peacekeepers were injured in the attack, which is considered an outstandingly high number. However, the Fidesz government failed to even speak up in this matter, let alone ask Péter Szíjjártó to take any kind of responsibility for the affair.

Orbán’s policy became like a snake eating its own tail: the statements that once seemed no more than propaganda slogans have risen to official foreign policy by now, and openly go against Hungary’s international commitments made and actions taken since the collapse of Communism. 

This led to a paradoxical situation where Fidesz is in conflict with Hungary’s national interests.

Since Orbán and his government, under the umbrella of the pro-Russia and illiberal alliance, committed to Aleksandar Vučić’s Serbia, he no longer cares about the interests of the Hungarian peacekeepers serving in Kosovo or those of the Hungarian state. The question is: how far can this deviation go?

How much further can Fidesz depart from the policy of protecting our own soldiers, which is considered a self-evident national interest in every country all over the world? Because the process is irreversible, that’s for sure.

Disclaimer: the sole liability for the opinions stated rests with the author(s). These opinions do not necessarily reflect the official position of the European Parliament.

• also interesting – MEP Gyöngyösi: Orbán, Europe’s toothless lion