Hungary FM Summons the Ambassador of Sweden

Sweden's ambassador to Hungary was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade over recent statements by Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, which the Hungarian government rejects in the strongest terms, the Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto said in Budapest on Wednesday.

Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Miniser Peter Szijjarto (Source: Facebook/Peter Szijjarto)

According to the statement by Hungary's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, during a break in the cabinet meeting the minister said that the reactions to the Georgian elections "had been incredibly revealing, showing that the liberals of Brussels and Europe cannot cope with the results".

The winners in Georgia were not who they wanted to see win. The Georgian people themselves decided and they in fact did not elect a liberal party, but a conservative, sovereignist, pro-peace and pro-family political force, yet again with more than 50 percent support,

he stressed.

"Brussels and the liberal mainstream can't digest this, so they are trying to create havoc anyway they can and questioning the results of the Georgian elections," he added. He also pointed out that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's visit to Georgia had received all sorts of criticism - divorced from reality, often ridiculous and sometimes even pathetic.

I won't go into the nonsense of the 'supporting actors' here, like my Polish colleague's Lenin reference, which is a level of expression so low as to not be worthy of our attention. However, when the prime minister of a country, especially one that we are allied with on multiple levels as it is also a member EU and NATO, questions whose position and interests the Hungarian prime minister represents, that is crossing a line, and therefore we must speak out,

he stated.

The foreign minister reported that 

the Swedish prime minister, who not that long ago in Budapest was requesting our support for his country's NATO membership, said just the other day that his Hungarian counterpart had likely been serving Russian interests in Tbilisi.

"This is a claim that we refute and reject in the strongest possible terms. We will not tolerate, condone or accept anyone's implications that we are representing anything other than our own country's, the Hungarian national interest and the Hungarian position", he rebuked.

"It may be different elsewhere, it may be that at times the people making these statements are projecting their own behaviors on us, but we categorically reject any claims that we, the members of the Hungarian government, the Hungarian prime minister and Hungarian ministers, are at any time representing anything other than the Hungarian national interest."

We are not a jawohl country, nobody can tell us what to say or what to represent. We represent the Hungarian national interest,

he stated.

Finally, Minister Szijjarto announced that in order to clarify the government's position, the Swedish ambassador to Hungary had been summoned the previous afternoon to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and had been asked to refrain from making such statements in the future. In his words, such remarks are in no way based on mutual respect and do not seem to be aimed at improving cooperation within the alliance.

Naturally, we will continue to follow the statements by our friends and allies in the future, and if necessary, we will of course make our own position clear,

he concluded.

Cover photo: Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Trade Miniser Peter Szijjarto (Source: Facebook/Peter Szijjarto)