Viktor Orbán can count on Slovakia’s support as Brussels increases its attempts to thwart Hungary at every turn—that appears to be the conclusion after the prime ministers met in Budapest earlier this week.
Relations between Hungary and Slovakia have never been as good as they are now—the two countries’ interests coincide with each other in “99 percent” of the cases, and both nations cherish sovereignty, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Tuesday, January 16th after holding talks with his Slovakian counterpart, Robert Fico.
Fico is now Orbán’s closest ally within the Visegrád Group, the Central European grouping of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, after nationalist-conservative Law and Justice (PiS) failed to build a governing coalition despite being the largest party in the parliamentary elections in Poland in October.
The significance of Tuesday’s meeting between Fico and Orbán was highlighted by the fact that this is only Fico’s second official foreign trip since taking office in October; the first one being the traditional prime ministerial visit to Prague.
Robert Fico, head of the social democratic, nationalist Smer, won elections in Slovakia in September on a platform similar to Orbán’s. He opposes sending military aid to Ukraine; has criticised sanctions against Russia that harm the European economy; defies EU and U.S. meddling in domestic affairs; wants tougher action on illegal migration, and is adamant on putting Slovakia’s sovereignty and national interests first.
Reflecting Fico’s position on these issues, Viktor Orbán said on Tuesday with regards to Hungary,
We are not happy with the super-state initiatives in Brussels, we are not at all happy with the efforts to legitimise illegal migration, we want to protect our borders, and we want to decide who we let into our country.
Regarding the repeated attacks by EU institutions on Hungary for its alleged ‘rule-of-law’ violations—in reality, attempts by Eurocrats to get the conservative government in line with their progressive-liberal agenda—Robert Fico said his government can be counted on to support Hungary:
As long as I am the head of the Slovak government, I will never agree that a country should be punished for fighting for its sovereignty. I will never agree with such an attack on Hungary.
his government “will never agree to a country being penalised for fighting for sovereignty and national independence.” He said he is “very worried” about attempts by the European Parliament to punish both Hungary and Slovakia, and would veto any move to sanction Hungary.
As we previously reported, members of the European Parliament are preparing for the next big push in their offensive against Hungary in a bid to prevent the country’s conservative government from assuming the European Council’s rotating presidency in July. The left-liberal majority in the Parliament is also keen on starting another infringement procedure (Article 7) against Hungary to eventually suspend its membership rights.
On Wednesday, January 17th, the European Parliament will also debate and vote on the situation in Slovakia where the new government introduced a law that would dismantle the special prosecutor’s office dealing with the most serious crimes and corruption. PM Fico has accused the office of being a politically biased authority which had been charging officials, police officers, judges, prosecutors, politicians, and businesspeople linked to Smer.
