According to Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, the Government is greatly appreciative of Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s support of Hungary, and considers it to be a guideline.

In a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI on Tuesday, Mr. Szijjártó reacted to an interview with the new Czech Foreign Minister published in the latest edition of Czech liberal political weekly Respekt. In the interview, Tomáš Petříček said liberal democracy should be protected jointly and explained that there was a need for the debate in the European parliament on the fact that Hungary has “turned away” from liberal democracy, but the call for the launching of Article 7 proceedings cannot take place prior to the new European Parliament elections and the establishment of the new European Commission.

In reaction to the interview with his Czech counterpart, Mr. Szijjártó said: “We appreciate the drive and desire to satisfy that goes with beginning a new job as foreign minister”.

We are looking forward to our meeting in November, where we will be able to discuss everything, since “sending messages has not been characteristic of Hungarian-Czech relations to date, and we hope it will not be in future”, he added.

He stressed that cooperation between the four countries of the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the V4) will remain at the focus of Hungarian foreign policy; “we greatly appreciative Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s support of Hungary, and consider it to be a guideline”.

(MTI)