Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó has said that Bill Clinton’s claims concerning Hungary are a manifestation of billionaire Hungarian-American financier George Soros’s “dissatisfaction” with the Hungarian government’s policies.
Speaking from the Bulgarian capital Sofia to news agency MTI, where he took part in a meeting of Council of Europe foreign ministers, the minister said that it is “commonplace” that George Soros is dissatisfied with the incumbent Hungarian government and “would prefer it if Hungary would not be led by this government”.
“We see this dissatisfaction surfacing now in American criticisms”, he said, calling attention to the fact that the Budapest-born billionaire maintains close relations with both former US President Bill Clinton and his presidential candidate wife Hillary, and is a long-time supporter of the policies pursued by the Clinton family.
The minister went on to say that facts disprove the criticisms voiced over the past days because US companies place their capital and their trust in Hungary “one after the other”.
“Economic cooperation between Hungary and the United States is a success story which would be impossible without American capital and American companies having trust in Hungary," he argued.
Minister Szijjártó's remarks came in reaction to former US President Bill Clinton, who said at a campaign event in New Jersey on Friday that Poland and Hungary “have now decided democracy is too much trouble, therefore “they want Putin-type leadership.”
Speaking subsequently at the Central European University in Budapest, US Ambassador to Hungary Colleen Bell said that the former president is a private individual and expressed his personal opinion.