The Hungarian minister consulted not only with the representatives of the Hungarians in Romania, but also with several EU heads of state and government in the neighboring country.

Viktor Orbán held a meeting in Bucharest on Wednesday afternoon with Kelemen Hunor, the president of the Hungarian Democratic Union in Romania, then with the Romanian prime minister, and finally with the heads of government of the EU member states and the president of the European Council, announced Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister's press chief.

After the negotiations, Viktor Orbán wished Kelemen Hunor good luck in the European and local elections.

"We Hungarians want the European Union to change in a positive direction and for our community to have strength and a voice in Europe as well! This is our common interest in the Carpathian Basin. Whoever votes for the RMDSZ on June 9 will vote for the victory of the Hungarians," he said in the RMDSZ Facebook post reporting on the meeting.

Viktor Orbán then held a working meeting with Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in the Victoria Palace. Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu and János Bóka, Minister of European Union Affairs also participated in this meeting.

On Wednesday evening, Viktor Orbán joined the preparatory meeting of the EU Strategic Agenda 2024-2029 in Bucharest together with the Prime Ministers of Croatia, Belgium and Slovenia, the President of Romania, and Charles Michel, President of the European Council.

The Strategic Agenda is a document to be adopted at the end of the EU institutional cycle, which outlines the strategic challenges for the next institutional cycle and provides guidance to the EU institutions.

The schedule is adopted by the heads of state and government, and before the decision, the document is consulted on several occasions in small groups in several European cities.

Before the mini-summit, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis held a face-to-face meeting with Charles Michel. The two of them are the hosts of the working meeting in Bucharest preparing its strategic schedule. At the press conference following the bilateral negotiations, Michel congratulated Johannis on Romania's partial Schengen accession.

According to Romanian press reports, during the informal working meeting with the participation of Hungarian Viktor Orbán, Belgian Alexander De Croo, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, the Romanian Head of State and the President of the ET, nominations for the position of NATO Secretary General may have been discussed in addition to EU issues. 

Known: Hungary opposes the Dutch Prime Minister following Jens Stoltenberg, and the post of Secretary General requires a unified position among the member states.

Also on Wednesday, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated in Brussels: in the history of NATO, a Central or Eastern European member state has never given a secretary general, so now is the time, especially considering that the main security challenge is currently coming from this direction.

The minister repeated: the Hungarian government cannot support Mark Rutte, who previously talked about bringing Hungary to its knees. The minister said: there are still some member states that are hesitating, and the candidacy of Romanian President Klaus Iohannis has created a new situation in this respect.

 

Ministerszterelnök.hu
MTI
Hungarian Nation

Cover image: Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu (j) receives Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his office in Bucharest
Source: MTI/Ministerial Press Office/Zoltán Fischer