European leaders react sharply to leaked phone calls between Szijjarto and Lavrov
After leaked phone calls between Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjarto and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, European leaders have issued sharp statements.
According to The Guardian, in this conversation, the heads of the Hungarian and Russian foreign ministries spoke about influencing the EU sanctions lists in favor of Moscow.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, commenting on the leaked media conversation, was extremely harsh.
“What we have heard, and what we already suspected, is only confirmation of the deeply disturbing political dependence of the government of Viktor Orban and his foreign minister, Mr. Szijjártó, directly on the authorities in Moscow. It has been a long time, if ever, that I have heard something so depressing,” the Polish official said.
According to him, the released recordings showed the political dependence of the Budapest government on Moscow. In addition, they “exposed how unacceptable and strange these relations really are.”
“The foreign minister of a European country – a member of the European Union – reports to the Russian foreign minister on the completion of a task and asks for patience, because he knows that he still has several tasks to complete? It is difficult to imagine anything more disgusting,” Tusk stressed.
He added that the Poles love the Hungarian people, and the friendship between the countries has lasted for centuries.
“The tragedy is that Viktor Orban’s government – or rather, Orban himself and Minister Szijjártó – have effectively left the European Union a long time ago,” he stated.
Ireland’s reaction
Irish Prime Minister Michał Martin says the conversation is “a very ominous development.”
“This confirms what many have suspected: the Hungarian government has been doing Russia’s bidding within the European Union for quite some time. The submissive tone of the conversation was alarming, and it is indeed a very serious situation when such behavior is observed in the European Union, which says a lot about the relationship between the Hungarian government and the Russian government. … This is unacceptable,” Martin stressed.
Czech President’s Comment
Czech President Petr Pavel has called on his country’s government to “reassess” its relations with Hungary amid “unacceptable” talks between Budapest and Moscow.
“I find it absolutely unacceptable that an EU and NATO member state would circumvent the rules in this way and share confidential, if not secret, information with our adversary. In view of this, we should definitely reconsider our relations with Hungary, in particular, what information we share with them and what we do not, because, of course, it is simply wrong for a NATO member to undermine our security in this way,” Pavel explained his point of view.
According to him, it is necessary to reduce all ties with the Hungarian Foreign Minister.
“He is absolutely untrustworthy, and Viktor Orban certainly knew about it. I believe that such things simply cannot be ignored,” added Petr Pavel.
Notably, Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka rejected the country’s president’s appeals. He claims that Pavel’s comments are “irrelevant”, given that foreign policy remains the prerogative of the government.
Hungary and Russia
The media leaked recordings of conversations between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. It is alleged that the latter lobbied for the lifting of sanctions on the sister of a Russian oligarch. In addition, Szijjarto leaked to Moscow details of confidential negotiations between European diplomats.
Earlier, the media reported that the Hungarian diplomat called Lavrov during breaks during meetings of the EU Council. Szijjarto himself confirmed the fact of such contacts. At the same time, shortly before this, the Hungarian government called the accusations of leaking confidential information to the Russians fake news.