It perfectly sums up the athenticity of Anna Maria Corazza Bildt’s accusations that the sentence that she builds her entire article on was not even uttered by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Bertalan Havasi, the Prime Minister’s press chief said in response.

According to Anna Maria Corazza Bildt’s article, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán crossed a line when last month at an event commemorating the legacy of the great German statesman Helmut Kohl he claimed that “Hungary’s illiberal model of democracy would be (the) driving force that revitalises Europe and the EPP”.

In June Mr Orbán spoke at the conference Budapest Europe Talk held in the Hungarian capital which was organised to commemorate the anniversary of the death of former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl. At the event the Prime Minister said, among other things, that a strong Europe needs strong nation states.

He stressed that Hungary is able to offer its assistance with forging a common European policy in a number of fields, as part of which it is able to offer a good example in the area of economic reforms and its assistance with transporting migrants back to their home countries.

He added that while the leaders of the European People’s Party (EPP) have made mistakes “to our detriment”, Fidesz continues to stand by the party family and Helmut Kohl’s ideals; “instead of deserting, we take on the more challenging task: let us renew the European People’s Party, and let us help it find its way back to its Christian democratic roots”.

(Cabinet Office of the Prime Minister/MTI)