A tale of being isolated

The row of diplomatic meetings has begun with a talk between PM Orban and Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics and also one of the world's leading sports diplomats.

Budapest, 2023. augusztus 19. A Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda által közreadott képen Orbán Viktor miniszterelnök (j) fogadja Sebastian Coe-t, a Nemzetközi Atlétikai Szövetség (WA) újabb négy évre megválasztott elnökét (b) a Karmelita kolostorban 2023. augusztus 19-én. MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher Fotó: Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher

Nevertheless, somehow it is never the Belgian-Luxembourg or the Austrian-Swiss summits that make the world press, even though those countries are in cahoots with each other. The diplomatic work in the Hungarian capital has culminated these days in talks with the presidents of Azerbaijan, Serbia, Turkey and the Emir of Qatar, among others.

Anyone who does not see the importance of this has been living in a box in recent years instead of seeing for themselves that even in the shadow of war, our region is dominated by migration and energy security issues and that these countries are important players in those matters. 

If you were to believe, for example, that it is liberal Luxembourg that is detaining unwanted migrants and securing Europe's gas supplies, you would most probably be wrong.

Momentum's poster is interesting – or disingenuous –  in light of the fact that their liberal (grand)fathers once had a spectacularly hard time digesting the historical tradition of St Stephen, naming Hungarian President Mihaly Karolyi and his minister Oszkar Jaszi from the WWI era as their standard-bearers.

The row of diplomatic meetings has begun with a talk between PM Orban and Sebastian Coe, president of World Athletics (previously the International Association of Athletics Federations) and one of the world's leading sports diplomats. The English leader is a former top middle-distance runner, so hopefully he will satisfy the most discerning liberal tastes, as his fellow countrymen have been watering the beautiful English pastures for eight hundred years. But that was not why Mr Coe’s appearance was interesting in PM Orban’s office in the Carmelite Monastery. It was because they had serious things to talk about.

Cover photo: Prime Minister Viktor Orban receives Sebastian Coe, President of World Athletics, elected for another four-year term, at the Carmelite Monastery on 19 August 2023 (Photo: MTI/Prime Minister's Press Office/Benko Vivien Cher)