Outrage in Hungary – Orban puts “slap in the face to the whole country”

After all, “the Hungarian people have elected the prime minister,” the politician of the ruling Fidesz party said on Facebook on Friday. “If someone wants someone dead, you can’t do it by saying, ‘Sorry, I didn’t mean that.’ What has happened is shocking and unacceptable. The longing for the death of another is unbearable. It makes the situation even more complicated when an influential journalist, the director of the Austrian public broadcaster, wishes the death of a top elected politician, the Hungarian prime minister,” said the politician, himself a former journalist.

He called on the “Austrian authorities that control the media” to “act”. Pachner had criticized Orban in a Facebook post Wednesday night for his proximity to Russia and the blockade of an oil embargo, writing: “A heart attack would be fair given his physical size and potential for excitement!” The post has since been deleted. Moments later, the ORF manager also issued an apology for his “careless and misleading wording”.

Budapest government calls for ‘immediate resignation’
But that does not mean that the case for Budapest is off the table. Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs called on Friday for Pachner’s “immediate resignation and departure”. This “would be the morally minimally acceptable consequence” for Pachner’s behavior, Kovacs wrote on Twitter.

The Austrian Foreign Ministry said the post, which has since been deleted, was “undoubtedly tasteless and completely unacceptable”. However, this is a private Facebook account that has no connection to official Austria.”