The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade takes the view that Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic insulted Hungary and the Hungarian people with his latest statement, and he therefore summoned the Croatian Ambassador to the Ministry.

In its communiqué issued on Friday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade reiterated: in his statement published on the Croatian website index.hr, Zoran Milanovic said that “Hungary is Europe’s appendix”, and its Prime Minister “was an active communist, then a liberal, a little bit of everything”.

He objected to the fact that Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said in Hungary that the Croatian asylum system collapsed in one day as, in Milanovic’s view, the Croatian system is exemplary, and European leaders likewise take that view.

“Everyone chooses their own company; mine is with Angela Merkel, Faymann and Cerar”, but as to who is Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic’s “company, I do not know”, the Croatian Prime Minister said.

Zoran Milanovic criticised the Croatian head of state for having had talks with the V4 countries; she did not consult the Prime Minister on this issue. He added: the Government is in charge of Croatia’s foreign policy.

Regarding this statement, Mr Szijjártó highlighted: “no one can allow themselves to speak about Hungary in such a tone”. Zoran Milanovic insulted Hungary and the Hungarian people. This statement is “unsophisticated, uncivilised, and not worthy of a European”.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade believes that anyone who says things like this is “likewise not worthy of leading a single European country”. It is not a mitigating circumstance in Zoran Milanovic’s favour that “he has been quite evidently frustrated for some weeks now because his country’s immigration system collapsed in one day, and as a result, Croatia failed the first serious Schengen test”, he said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade summoned the Croatian Ambassador to Budapest with immediate effect.

(MTI)