Anti-Hungarian Romanian President Iohannis as NATO Secretary General candidate supported by Orbán’s cabinet
Change language:
Hungary does not support Mark Rutte’s candidacy for NATO secretary general, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday, adding that as complete trust was an essential requirement in the alliance, and the Dutch leader had in the past talked about “bringing Hungary to its knees”.
At a press conference held in Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely), Szijjártó welcomed that Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, an “eastern candidate” for the post, had emerged.
He said much talk focused on strengthening the alliance’s eastern flank but “it doesn’t occur to anyone that if a threat is from the east, then the secretary general might also be from the east”.
The minister said that in NATO “you even have to die for each other, so it must be led by someone in whom we can trust 100 percent”.
He confirmed that he had a tough debate with his Lithuanian counterpart in Brussels earlier in the day. He insisted that Gabrielius Landsbergis was “one of the most pro-war politicians” among the EU foreign ministers. “No matter how much someone shouts at me … I still favour peace,” he said.
Many were surprised by the Hungarian Foreign Minister’s statement, because despite his minority (Saxon) origin, Iohannis did not defend the interests of Hungarians in Transylvania during his presidency. According to pro-government media Magyar Hírlap, in fact, according to the National Council for Combating Discrimination (CNCD), Klaus Iohannis insulted the human dignity of his fellow Hungarians when he mocked his Social Democratic political opponents by greeting them in Hungarian in 2020, accusing the party of selling out Transylvania.
In 2020, Hunor Kelemen, the President of the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania (RMDSZ), called for Iohannis’s apology for his “hysterical, unworthy of a state president, reminiscent of the violent and dangerous policies of the Greater Romania Party.”
We have witnessed an unprecedented manifestation of misinformation and incitement to hatred against Hungarians from the microphone of the presidential palace in the last thirty years,” the RMDSZ president said.
While one candidate’s long-ago speech seems unforgivable for the Hungarian government, the other candidate’s outburst is acceptable.
Mr Johannis has several months in office. He definitely will have to show some signs of pro-minority change in his politics if he expects full support for his NATO candidacy.