“Preparations for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s visit to Vienna are ongoing, and the talks could be held on 30 January”, the Prime Minister’s Press Chief, Bertalan Havasi said in a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI in reaction to news reports published in the Austrian press.

According to reports, during his visit to the Austrian capital Mr. Orbán will be holding separate talks with recently appointed Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, and with his coalition partner, Chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party Heinz-Christian Strache. According to plan, the Prime Minister will also be holding talks with several other Austrian politicians on the same day. In view of the fact that the organisation of Mr. Orbán’s program in Vienna is still ongoing, Mr. Havasi declined to provide more detailed information on these meetings for the time being.

At his joint press conference with the Polish Prime Minister in Budapest on 3 January, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that he would like to meet with the members of the new Austrian Government and with leading businesspeople and intellectuals before the end of the month. Mr. Orbán said that while maintaining the firm internal relations within the Visegrád Group, the V4 is thinking of establishing intensive relations with, amongst others, Austria. “Austria is an example of the fact that democracy is working in Europe, and that it is inconceivable for politicians to refuse to act according to the will of the people for a prolonged period of time with relation to important issues such as migration”, Mr. Orbán said.

(MTI)