“When liberals win, democracy is upheld; when conservatives win, democracy is questioned,” Hungarian conservative Prime Minister Viktor Orbán quipped at his meeting with his Georgian counterpart Irakli Kobakhidze in Tbilisi on Tuesday, October 29th.
The Hungarian PM’s visit was a show of solidarity with a country that is being vilified by Brussels and the globalist Western elites for not adhering to “EU values.”
The conservative Georgian Dream party won its fourth consecutive parliamentary elections on Saturday with a landslide. Though international observers did not call the elections fraudulent, the EU’s liberal leaders have demanded that Georgian authorities “seriously clarify and address” alleged irregularities, and have threatened the country with derailing its path to EU membership.
“Even though the election results are clear, and the election itself was free and democratic, there will still be debates in Europe about your election,” Viktor Orbán told Irakli Kobakhidze, noting that “when liberals win, democracy is upheld; when conservatives win, democracy is questioned.”
Georgian Dream shares a lot of similarities with the Hungarian ruling party Fidesz, both in terms of pursuing socially conservative domestic policies and a sovereigntist foreign policy.
The conservative Georgian Dream has angered the EU elites by its insistence on embracing Christian and conservative values, and for adopting an anti-LGBT propaganda law, aiming to safeguard traditional family values.
It is also facing backlash for not being willing to support sanctions against Russia and for promoting a diplomatic solution to bring the war in Ukraine to an end. For this stance, the Georgian Dream party is regularly labelled “pro-Russian,” even though it clearly intends to join the EU—which ought to be possible without embracing Brussels’ ‘progressive’ policies.
“Hungary is a pro-peace country in Europe, and we appreciate your efforts to be on the side of peace. No one wants to ruin their own country and drag it into a senseless war, so we understand the decision of the Georgian people who voted for peace” the Hungarian PM said.
Orbán highlighted the mutual respect shared by Hungary and Georgia, rooted in both nations’ long histories of defending sovereignty amid pressures from powerful neighbouring states. He congratulated Irakli Kobakhidze, saying that while pursuing pro-European policies, his government did not allow the country to “become a second Ukraine.”
Georgia, which has a population of 3.7 million, and lies in the Caucasus region, bordering Russia, applied for EU membership two years ago and was granted candidate status in December of last year. Though the governing party and the prime minister are committed to Georgia joining the EU by 2030, Brussels froze the accession process earlier this year after the country’s parliament voted in favour of a foreign interference law.
But Viktor Orbán stressed that the Georgian people—80% of whom support EU accession—as well as the governing and opposition parties are clearly committed to joining the 27-member bloc, so for anyone to question that commitment is “amusing at best.”
Orbán’s foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, who was also in Tbilisi, said that despite criticism from Brussels, Georgian people “made a clear choice.” He added: “It’s time Brussels understands that governments are chosen by the people, not appointed from afar.”
