Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that gaining the European Commission’s enlargement and neighborhood post was Hungary’s “biggest diplomatic success of the past ten years”.
Speaking to Kossuth radio this morning, PM Orbán said that over the past ten years Hungary had never managed to attain comparable influence in the EU, and the post would be “the most important” of the next five years.
The prime minister noted that the post covered migration, security and aspects of energy policy, since the Hungarian commissioner would also be dealing with the Caucasus and Azerbaijan.
PM Orbán said many people had striven to prevent Hungary from capturing the post, and the opposition had joined forces in Brussels to try to prevent Olivér Várhelyi from being appointed, while US financier George Soros had personally intervened with the same aim in mind.
The prime minister called Várhelyi an “excellent patriot and a good European”, adding “I would never appoint people who aren’t good patriots or can’t reconcile that with international missions”.
Photo credit: Mandiner