Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó on Monday at a press conference in
VMRO-DPMNE denied allegations of alleged influence by former Prime Minister
Nikola Gruevski, who was granted political asylum in Budapest, and said of SDSM
leader Zoran Zaev that in general it does not matter what he thinks of the internal
situation in Hungary.
"I hope you find me more serious than someone dictating to me who to meet. As you
know, today I met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs. "But I don't see what the
controversial situation is then meeting with representatives of our sister party when I
come to her invitation."
The Hungarian Foreign Minister said this in response to a journalist's question
whether travel conferences are always seen and held at press conferences with
opposition parties or it is a case only now because allegedly Hungarian Prime
Minister Viktor Orban and VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski, according to the
journalist were influence of Nikola Gruevski.
The Hungarian foreign minister was also asked how he would react to statements
made in the past by Zaev and his party that there is a dictatorial government in
Hungary and that Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a dictator, recalling that his Fidesz
party won the last parliamentary elections with a two-thirds majority in the
parliament.
You know, it doesn’t really matter what Mr. Zaev thinks about the internal situation in
Hungary because he is not Hungarian. For us what matters is what the Hungarian
people feel about the internal situation in Hungary. We won the last three elections
with a two-thirds majority, which shows very well what the Hungarian people think
about our performance. For us this is what matters and now what external actors
think about us. It doesn’t matter. My principle when it comes to foreign policy is
mutual respect. And mutual respect means that you try to avoid commenting on
domestic internal situation in other countries. You never hear me commenting about
the social-democratic Government here. And when it was about Hungary supporting
the EU and NATO integration of your country we were not really faced with this
opinion from him, concluded Szijjártó.
