Reception in Vienna – Hungarian President Sulyok visited Van der Bellen

“Szerettetel üdvözlöm önöket! Welcome!” Van der Bellen greeted Sulyok on the X platform in both languages. He also posted a short video showing both presidents with their wives at the military reception and in the Hofburg chambers.

“Historic connection between the two countries”
For his part, Sulyok emphasized on X and Facebook the centuries-old historical bond between the two countries, which “can be felt at any time in Hungary.” In his Hungarian-language Facebook post, he also quoted Emperor Otto Habsburg’s son, “a member of a well-known family in our history,” with a line from his 1952 “Europe Concept”: “What separates us Europeans from each other is much more meaningless than what unites us.”

The two heads of state spoke at length about the current Hungarian presidency of the EU Council, the enlargement of the EU, the Western Balkans and the international situation, for example in view of the war in Ukraine. But they also discussed economic issues such as the Hungarian special tax on foreign retailers, which Austria criticized as discriminatory, as the presidential office said in response to an APA request. The mood must have been good: the two presidents congratulated each other on the Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to Ferenc Krausz last year. The scientist, born and raised in Hungary, also has Austrian citizenship, but has worked in Germany for many years. He declared himself Hungarian to the Nobel Prize Committee.

Ukraine was also a problem
Sulyok also met with the Chairman of the National Council, Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP), in the afternoon during his stay in Vienna. He welcomed the trip of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Ukraine and asked Sulyok about Hungary’s position on Russia’s war of aggression. Sulyok stressed that Russia’s role as an aggressor in this conflict was clear to Hungary from the beginning. It is important to continue supporting Ukraine in this situation, Sobotka stressed. It must be made clear that aggressors cannot simply move borders. Sulyok also discussed what he considers to be an inadequate protection of the Hungarian minorities in Ukraine.

After the talks, Sulyok laid a wreath at the monument of Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis at the Medical University of Vienna. In the evening, there was a meeting with representatives of the Hungarian community in Austria.

orban constitutional lawyer as president
Sulyok, 68, was only installed as president in early March. The lawyer and constitutional jurist previously served as president of the Constitutional Court. He succeeded Katalin Novák as head of state, who was forced to resign in February after the accomplice of an abuser was pardoned. Sulyok made his first foreign trip as president in March, to Poland. Sulyok has long-standing friendly relations with Austria; between 2000 and 2014 he was Austrian honorary consul in the southern Hungarian city of Szeged.

In May, the Hungarian opposition Democratic Coalition (DK) accused Sulyok, by submitting documents, of illegally passing land in Hungary to Austrian buyers in the early 2000s as a lawyer using so-called pocket contracts. At the time, the sale of Hungarian land to non-Hungarians was prohibited. This regulation remained in place for a transitional period after Hungary joined the EU in 2004, and did not expire until 2014. Sulyok’s office rejected the accusations and the prosecutor’s office refused to open an investigation. DK was also unable to push through impeachment proceedings, given the two-thirds majority of the ruling Fidesz party in parliament.

Presidency of the Council of the EU this semester
Hungary holds the presidency of the EU Council this semester. The right-wing nationalist Hungarian government has adopted the motto “Make Europe Great Again,” a campaign slogan adapted from controversial former US President Donald Trump. While experts expect a professional approach at the official level, Prime Minister Orbán’s long-standing blockade policy and political preferences will likely determine the focus of the next six months. On Sunday in Vienna, Orbán also announced the creation of a new right-wing group in the EU Parliament, together with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl and former Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, whose ANO party recently left the European Liberals. Orbán’s right-wing nationalist Fidesz party left the European People’s Party (EPP) and its parliamentary group in 2021 and has not been associated at the European level since then.