Gyurcsány said he had invited the ambassadors and other diplomats to the meeting to “mitigate the damage” Hungary’s prime minister had caused to the nation with the referendum. With the October 2 referendum, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán failed to achieve his “obvious”, yet “publicly undeclared” objective to become leader of the Euro-skeptic, anti-elite, increasingly radical Right in Europe, he said.

Further, despite his attempt to declare the referendum a “great success”, Orbán failed to appear before Hungary’s general public as “a unifier of the nation”, Gyurcsány said.

The DK leader reiterated that Orbán should change his policies as it became clear that the government cannot enforce Hungary’s interests effectively in Europe if it puts migration into the focus. Gyurcsány called the proposed amendment to the constitution “unsuitable” for giving Hungary more protection.

In turn, it carries the risk that the government, referring to constitutional identity, will launch “a new war on a number of European issues”, he said.

Ruling Fidesz in response said that Gyurcsány is running a “diplomacy campaign” in support of a mandatory relocation of migrants under EU quotas.

Gyurcsány, similarly to Brussels, “has lost contact” with the voters, it said, adding that Hungarian people did not vote against the migrants or the European Union in the referendum, but instead stood by their country and Europe as a whole.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.

MTI photo: Máthé Zoltán