Hungary’s Foreign Minister, Anita Orbán, has strongly rejected accusations of betrayal made by former members of the Orbán government, arguing that she has remained loyal to Hungary while the political system around her has changed.
FM Anita Orbán addresses allegations
The dispute erupted after a group of former government figures linked to the ruling Fidesz camp published an unusually informal open letter addressing Anita Orbán by her first name and accusing her of disloyalty. The letter criticised the minister, who now serves in the government of Prime Minister Péter Magyar, for previous comments in which she alleged corruption among former government colleagues.
Responding on social media, Orbán said reading the letter had been difficult because it reminded her of a time when she believed everyone involved was genuinely working in the service of the country.
“I did not change, the system did”
Anita Orbán, who served in Hungary’s foreign affairs system between 2010 and 2015 as an ambassador-at-large responsible for energy security, insisted that her values had remained consistent. “One thing is important for you to know: I did not change. The system that you are trying to defend to the very end changed,” she wrote.
According to the minister, she witnessed from within how professional expertise was gradually replaced by loyalty, national interests by personal interests, and public service by the pursuit of wealth and privileges. She argued that every decent person eventually faces a choice between accepting such developments or rejecting them despite the personal consequences, writes 444.
Orbán also turned the accusation of betrayal back on her critics. She questioned whether a traitor is someone who loves their country more than their political community, or someone who, as a member of the former government, contributed to what she described as the looting and weakening of Hungary.
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She hit back with Fidesz ruining Hungary’s international image
The foreign minister further argued that the letter reflected the current state of the Fidesz political community because it focused on her behaviour and appearance rather than what she called the country’s real problems.
She also addressed claims that she should feel ashamed of her actions. Anita Orbán said many Hungarians had experienced embarrassment abroad in recent years when Hungary became associated not with internationally respected figures such as Nobel Prize winners, football legend Ferenc Puskás or composer Béla Bartók, but with accusations of anti-European policies, corruption, oligarchic influence and unchecked enrichment.
Concluding her response, Orbán said the key question was not whether someone remained loyal to a particular political side, but whether they remained loyal to Hungary itself.
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I guess I misunderstood Fundamental Law. It seems to say that it’s everyone’s obligation to resist one-party rule, and not that Fidesz (or Tisza!) is the State and loyalty to party is greater than to the Sovereign Country.
I don’t like reCAPTCHA for accessibility reasons and the implications of not being able to validate one of them, and then there are abstractions.
Fidesz is a cesspool of unrepentant Russian agents. We can look forward to the start of prosecution of these thieving traitors.
Very intelligent and a hard working woman who has the integrity to think what is best for Hungary and Hungarians, something that Fidesz community lacks – just like she perfectly points out. It is true that abroad the first thing foreigners think about Hungary is the anti-European policy. I´ve had to several time to explain to people that majority of ordinary Hungarians do not think like that, just like we saw in the elections. I hope this changes soon and abroad Hungary will be recognized again with the great scientific and cultural achievements as finally we are progressing and becoming Europeans again instead of Russian subordinates.
Unfortunately, Dear Ostanus, little countries are almost always beholden to somebody much larger.
Clearly you think that being beholden to The Western Elite is superior to being beholden to a Czarist Russia.
Okay, let’s look will be the prices for being a toady of The Western Elite: sexualizing your children, buying outrageously expensive energy, taking part in immoral and expensive regime-change wars, and replacing your own population with non-European strangers.
And the prices for being a Russian toady?
Veto anti-Russian EU legislation in exchange for cheap energy, with no changes to your culture or your population, nor required participation in regime-change wars.
Yes, I can clearly see why you prefer to be a Western Toady – it makes perfect sense.
We don’t need Russians coming on this comment board to tell us about “Western Elites”. Slava Ukraini and to Hell with Putin. Russia is bleeding itself out in Ukraine with its’ war of aggression and Russian who goes there to kill Ukrainians deserves what they get when they get sent back to their familes in a stinking box.
Unfortunately, Dear Larry, I have been carrying around a birth certificate that says I was born in the Continental U.S – a coon’s age ago.
I reckon I’ll have to l Social Security Department and let them know that you think they need to update by birthplace to one in Russia!
Might as well live in a Russian smalltown, as they still are Christian, straight, and know the differences between men and women!
Flag of the Confederacy as your thumbnail…how ironic but completely appropriate.
You write “immoral and expensive regime-change wars” — referring, perhaps, to the crimes of the USA in Iran and elsewhere. Do bear in mind, please, that the phrase also applies to Russia’s occupation of the Crimea and attempted conquest of Ukraine. Neither Russia nor the “Western elites” can claim innocence in this regard.
May I ask a favour of you ? Please think twice, or three times, before you hit the “shift” key in comments at this site. Your mis-use of capital letters is bizarre. Perhaps you intend it to be an intentional hommage to Trump, mimicking him in his “Truth Social” posts ; it certainly makes you appear as ignorant of conventions in writing English as is he.
Since you love Russia, so much I think you should leave and move there. I don’t think you remember the Cold War times. Recycled paper to wipe your ass standing in line for bread standing in line for sugar grocery stores with little products in them… OK you can go back the rest of us will stay here.