Hungary and Georgia are both led by patriotic governments “against which the liberal mainstream has launched serious ideological and political attacks”, Szijjarto said at a joint press conference with Georgian counterpart Maka Botchorishvili, according to a ministry statement.

The minister said Botchorishvili’s first foreign visit was to Hungary, which had come at a time “when both countries constantly have to fight to preserve their sovereignty amid the current extraordinary security challenges”.

Szijjarto congratulated Georgia’s ruling party on its recent election victory, saying the electorate in the South Caucasus country had “made its will clear”.

“They elected a pro-peace, pro-family, patriotic conservative government, and as it usually happens in a case like this, the liberal mainstream got upset over this,” Szijjarto said. “Because typically, if an election is won by a conservative, patriotic party, the liberal mainstream immediately questions the democratic nature of the political system, and if it’s won by a liberal party, they celebrate the fantastic rule of democracy.”

He said the situation was the same in Georgia, arguing that if the opposition had won “Brussels would be saying that democracy has never been in better shape”. But now, he said, “they’re trying to ignore the will of the people and are questioning the outcome of the election”.

“This is a very repulsive, transparent, and now a very boring game of the liberal mainstream, which we reject," he said.

Szijjarto expressed his support for Georgia’s European Union aspirations, underlining that Budapest would provide all the help it could to speed up the process, but Brussels’s approach, he added, was alienating the country.
 

He criticised a recent resolution approved by the European Parliament concerning Georgia, which, he said, took “a humiliating tone towards an entire nation”.

“We reject this... The European Parliament has a pro-war, liberal, left-wing majority which constantly attacks those who speak openly about peace,” Szijjarto said.

He also said that “minutes ago”, Brussels had put forward a proposal to impose sanctions on Georgia’s interior minister and two of its police officials.

“This is nonsensical, outrageous and totally uncalled for,” Szijjarto said. “Hungary firmly opposes placing Georgian government officials on sanctions lists, and if such a proposal is drafted, we will, of course, veto it.”

He encouraged Georgians to continue to stand up for themselves and their national sovereignty.

As regards bilateral relations, he welcomed the progress made on the implementation of a strategic partnership agreement signed two years ago.

Bilateral trade turnover is up 34 percent this year, and Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air remains a market leader in Georgia’s air travel sector, Szijjarto said. Hungarian pharmaceutical exports to Georgia are on the rise, Hungary offers university scholarships to 80 Georgian students each year, and the two countries are working to enable the central European import of green energy, he added.

Meanwhile, Orban and Szijjarto meet Trump and Musk in Florida

Prime Minister Viktor Orban met US President-elect Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, on Monday. Elon Musk and Michael Waltz also attended the meeting, the PM's press chief said.

Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and 4iG chief executive Gellert Jaszai was also present, Bertalan Havasi said.

Szijjarto: Hungary-US political relations set to enter 'golden age'

Hungarian-American political relations are set to enter a "golden age" with the election of Donald Trump as the next US president, and relations between Hungary and the US could be better than ever before, the foreign minister said on Tuesday.

The ministry cited Peter Szijjarto telling a joint press conference with his Georgian counterpart in response to a question about his US visit on the previous day that they had held lengthy talks with President-elect Trump, designate National Security Advisor Mike Waltz, and designate Co-Chair of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk lasting about three hours.

"Of course we also congratulated the president-elect because this was the first in-person meeting between the prime minister and the president-elect since the election," he added.

"The prime minister and the president-elect maintained relations also during the time when Donald Trump was not the president, during the election campaign, and they have talked on the phone several times since," Szijjarto said. "It is completely natural that they hold consultations regularly."

Szijjarto said that what further increased the importance of the meeting was that as a result of the transformation of the global economy, digitalisation and AI could play crucial roles in determining a country's future place in the global economy. Musk and the global empire of companies linked to him play a serious role in spreading new technology, he added.

Szijjarto also said that currently there was an opportunity for better than ever political relations to develop between Hungary and the US.

He added that it was important that until January 20, 2025, nobody in the US or Europe should make irresponsible decisions that could make it impossible to create peace and that would set off irreversible developments.

Considering that the war is still ongoing, the efforts of Hungary's peace mission must be enhanced, he said. "Last week the prime minister visited the Holy Father. I was in Moscow, in Washington, and held meetings in Malta. Now we travelled to Florida with the prime minister and at least two more events will take place this week that form part of the peace mission, one tomorrow and another one the day after tomorrow," he said.

Szijjarto tells journalists, politicians 'who spread fake news' to stop

Peter Szijjarto has told journalists and politicians who "spread fake news" of a plane landing in Budapest should show self-restraint, saying the reports were completely untrue and could put Hungary in danger in the current febrile atmosphere. "Some politicians pounced on this news and created a huge fake news tsunami from it," the foreign minister said.

Szijjarto said "political profiteering" from the fake news soon caught hold in Hungary, according to a ministry statement on Tuesday.

Fake news connected to the "struggle" in the Middle East "involving terrorist organisations" could put the whole country "in very serious danger", he said, adding that the false reports started spreading on Sunday and peddled distortions over the evacuation of Hungary's embassy in Syria.

The Syrian embassy in Budapest could have been targeted by terrorists, he said, adding that it was also possible that terrorist attacks may be mounted against Hungarian interests, people and communities "anywhere in the world" if they terrorists were to act on information that "justify their way of thinking".

Szijjarto called on "Hungarian journalists and all Hungarian politicians to exercise self-restraint ... and try to behave a little responsibly".

Luckily a tragedy had not occurred this time, "but it could have", he said.

Meanwhile, Fidesz group leader Mate Kocsis said in a post on Facebook that the leader of the opposition Tisza Party, Peter Magyar, had "crossed every threshold" by spreading "irresponsible, unscrupulous" lies, thereby "endangering the lives and safety of our compatriots".

He said it had been obvious over the past few days that the plane carrying Assad had not landed in Hungary and the photo of the plane was fake. Whereas the media outlet Magyar Hang had deceived the public, it then issued a correction. The Tisza Party leader, however, failed to do so or apologise, he added.

Kocsis insisted that Magyar himself had concocted and spread the story, adding that he had done so by "slavishly" satisfying "demand from abroad", without paying heed to the risks to Hungary.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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