PM Orbán leaves Hungary this weekend to meet important friend

Hungary has been a NATO member for 25 years, has always fulfilled its related obligations “and will continue to do so”, head of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyas told a press conference on Thursday, in response to a question concerning recent remarks about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by the Prime Minister’s political director Balázs Orbán.

Commenting on recent reactions to the director’s remarks by certain ambassadors in Hungary, he said he considered it “tasteless and cynical that the ambassadors of those countries are edging into a dispute about history in connection with 1956 that did nothing … when the Russians shot Budapest to pieces and crushed Hungary’s fight for freedom.”

The political director’s remarks were prone to misinterpretation, Gulyás told a government press briefing held after two cabinet away-days in southern Hungary. Asked about the possible personnel consequences of the director’s remarks, Gulyás said “the issue is closed on our part”. HERE we covered the issue. In THIS article, you may read about the foreign consequences, for example, the joint démarche of the German and French ambassadors.

Meanwhile, Gulyás said the appearance of Peter Magyar and his Tisza Party in Hungarian politics had brought with itself “unprecedented aggression and arrogance”. Magyar, he said, outdid Democratic Coalition leader Ferenc Gyurcsány in terms of making false statements. During the election campaign, Magyar called for the cancellation of the right for immunity and also said he would not become an MEP, Gulyás said. Since then, after he was suspected of theft, he became a great supporter of the right for immunity, became an MEP and “does not want the EP to suspend his immunity”, he added.

On the subject of the current situation in the Middle East, Gulyás noted that the government has asked all Hungarians staying in Lebanon to register for consular protection and to leave the country as soon as possible. The government “will help everyone get home”, he said, adding that commercial travel was still an option, he said.

EU member states have a right for defence

Destabilising wars led to migration pressure, and Hungary will do everything to prevent an influx of migrants, he said, adding that Europe was particularly susceptible to migration from the region.

Gulyás said most EU member states were in agreement that Israel “has the right to defend itself”, and “serious discussions” about how to find an exit route from the current situation were under way.

In response to a question about concerns voiced by certain German politicians who were concerned about the risks of their secret services cooperating with Vienna in the event of Freedom Party of Austria forming a government, Gulyas congratulated the FPO on its victory in the election, adding that it was “good news for us too”, and the whole of Europe, because “they belong to the Patriots for Europe party family”.