The foreign minister said recent accusations of racism levelled against Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s remarks in Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) were “nonsense”.
“I have been working in the immediate vicinity of Viktor Orbán for 16 years, and I am fully aware that the heart and soul of his politics is zero tolerance against anti-Semitism and racism,” Péter Szijjártó said, adding that attacks against Hungary’s government have multiplied since the migration crisis of 2015, and “every similar statement gets twisted.” He called Frans Timmermans, the European Commission Vice-President who levelled criticism at the government, “one of the most harmful politicians in the history of the EU”. Concerning the market purchase of an additional 700 million cubic metres of natural gas over the contracted volume, which Hungary hopes to conclude to boost supplies for the winter, the foreign minister said his “hopes are growing day by day … in light of trade and political talks in both directions”. “We will use the gas we bought on Hungarian taxpayer money and stored in Hungarian reservoirs as dictated by the interests of the Hungarian people and economy, he said. We will make no compromises on that,” Minister Szijjártó added.
Photo credit: Facebook/Szijjártó Péter