Katalin Novák spoke after talks with Jacob Rees-Mogg, leader of the House of Commons, and told Hungarian public media that the government sought opportunities for cooperation with Britain’s Conservatives and Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party.

She said the two parties’ similar views on family policy offered such opportunities.

Rees-Mogg was interested to hear how Hungary had reduced abortions by 41% in the past decade, and he welcomed the doubling in the number of marriages in Hungary as well as the birth rate increasing by 27%, Novák said, adding that these trends were “just the opposite” in Britain.

Concerning Brexit, Novák said that the European Union’s institutions “have failed to draw inevitable consequences” and would make “the same mistakes again” by “dragging Poland or Hungary around with no regard to national characteristics”.

Just as Britons refused to give up their national identity or traditions, neither would Hungarians or Poles, Novák said.

“It’s important that the EU and its institutions should be partners in endeavours to preserve our sovereignty,” she added.

Novák said negotiations between the British and Hungarian governments were ongoing to ensure that Hungarian ventures and students in Britain suffer the least because of Brexit.

She said the costs borne by students had grown and Hungarian business people and students no longer had “the same rights” as before Britain quit the EU.


MTI Photo: Gergely Botár