From the editorial board: below is an editorial article by the Hungarian paper "Hungary Today" on attacks by Czech and Slovak politicians on Prime Minister Viktor Orban and politics of Hungary.
The article confirms the deep crisis experienced by the Visegrad Group. It is characteristic that Poland was alternatively spared in this text. The difference of tasks with Warsaw concerns only geopolitics, and Prague and Bratislava besides rise ideological issues against Budapest. Here's the text in "Hungary Today:
"The fresh visit of the outgoing Czech head of state to Slovakia confirmed that cooperation between the Visegrad Group (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland) is not a permanent, apolitical entity, but its strength is powerfully determined by the ideological profile of the rulers.
However, those of the present Czech and Slovak leaders who want it to turn into a appropriate club of the 4 countries that are just next to each other, while being full active in the now dominant Euroatlantic mainstream, fall into serious contradictions, trying to redefine its mission.
"I believe that very good Czech-Slovak cooperation will proceed with my successor," said the outgoing Czech president Miloš Zeman during a farewell visit to Slovakia. He added that although he did not support Pavl in the election, he wished him success in the interests of the Czech Republic. His Slovak counterpart, Zuzana Čaputová She said she saw her closeness to Pavel and expected good cooperation. "I am happy to cooperate, we will be able to be a strong voice of reason, pro-Western orientation and respect for European values in the region," said Čaputová.
The Presidents of the Czech Republic and Slovakia besides discussed regional cooperation. According to Čaputova, the Visegrad 4 are not unanimous in the substance of the regulation of law and assistance to Ukraine, which is to be clearly not a veiled reprimand to Hungary. This happened only a fewer days after the Czech president, Elekt Petr Pavel, clearly expressed his feelings for the government Viktor Orbán. Despite the fact that Heads of State are expected to be neutral on political issues and in peculiar to avoid criticism of abroad governments, Pavel felt obliged to send a signal of loyalty aimed primarily at the EU, indicating the ideological opponent number 1 of Brussels, Viktor Orbán.
He stated that although he had never had a negative attitude towards Hungary as a country, he felt that there was a problem with any of Viktor Orbán's views and policies. In an interview with the Czech press agency, the president-elect explained this by referring to Hungary's position towards the conflict in Ukraine.
"There is no uncertainty that Viktor Orbán has changed a lot, due to the fact that erstwhile he started in politics as a very progressive young liberal, no 1 would uncertainty for a minute that this was the right way. But the phrase Viktor Orbán has made since then is almost 180 degrees“ – Pavel said, adding that at the minute ‘in an nonsubjective way’ any views of the Hungarian leadership do not correspond to those of another Visegrad countries. "We are primarily talking about support for Ukraine and relations with Russia, which are rather fundamental things," he said.
However, he did not want to put the cross on V4 as an institution due to the fact that its genesis, motivation and foundations on which it stands are inactive up to date, he said. However, he pointed out that if there were differences in fundamental issues specified as relations with Russia or the promotion of democracy, cooperation would not be completely fluid. "We should work on bringing these positions closer, if possible, due to the fact that otherwise we will not have much importance as a group," he added.
The fact that Pavel felt comfortable, going back to the 1980s. In his assessment of Viktor Orbán's alleged return by 180 degrees, many who followed fresh presidential elections in the Czech Republic will be surprised. The erstwhile general himself was the subject of an attack, accused of not telling the fact about his career before 1989. There's a video of a lawyer and a erstwhile U.S. lawyer circulating online. Miroslav Kříženecký criticized then presidential candidate Petr Pavl.
During a 15-minute monologue, Pavl's communist past is mainly discussed. The attorney-at-law of Kříženecký, who himself was a associate of the Communist organization of Czechoslovakia and chief military prosecutor during the erstwhile regime, spoke of Pavla's communist past. The fact is that Pavel applied for his candidacy as a associate of the Communist organization of Czechoslovakia in 1983 and received membership in 1985, after which he rapidly advanced. In a later interview, General Pavel confirmed these allegations and explained the reasons for joining the Communist Party.
Apparently, the military archive in Olomouc contains a wider evidence of his full career in the army. The presidential candidate does not intend to make them available, inter alia, due to the fact that he believes that they contain purely individual information.
He besides condemned Pavla in the film, due to the fact that as a general he criticized the current president, Miloš Zeman, the commander-in-chief of the armed forces. "It's just not done," the lawyer pointed out.
Despite the fact that it is hard to overlook the hypocrisy of a erstwhile communist who has become a committed Europhile and president of a democratic country, criticising the Hungarian Prime Minister for his alleged 180 degree turn, it is even more hard to decipher what he meant by fundamental differences in "promoting democracy". While the Czech Republic has proved to be 1 of the more hawk countries in terms of military support for Ukraine, and Hungary has clearly chosen a completely different path, it is simply a mystery what legal or moral basis Pavel has to argue the democratic standards of the Czech standards of Hungary.
This allegation is even sharper with respect to the statements made by the president of Slovakia, in which it calls for respect for European values in the region, clearly referring to Hungary. Given the fact that in 2018 a young investigative writer was murdered in Slovakia along with his girlfriend, that in the same year and besides in 2019, 2 foreigners were murdered in the capital of Bratislava by racist bandits, that in 2022 2 members of the gay community were shot, the question raises: Why Zuzana Čaputová feels entitled to hold the Hungarian government liable for breaking European values and the regulation of law. In fresh years, no specified incidents have been reported in Hungary since Orbán's government took power in 2010.
Taking into account besides Slovakia's history, where the erstwhile Home Secretary was arrested due to alleged ties with organised crime, erstwhile central bank president was charged with corruption, where the police chief ended up in handcuffs for abuse of power, and even a peculiar national prosecutor who was expected to analyse the links between criminal entities and politicians, himself was on the bench of the defendants, mocking remarks ČAputova about Hungarian leadership seems rather curiosive.
Everyone can decide which of the Visegrad Group countries has been better successful in implementing democratic reforms since the fall of the Iron Curtain, but it cannot be denied that Hungarian conservative politicians have retained greater diplomatic freedom in the face of the regulation of law in the Visegrad Group partner countries. They refrained from criticizing the Czech government for exporting arms to Russia even after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, nor complained erstwhile Orbán's ally, Andrej Babis, was stripped of his mandate following a media run related to the alleged Pandora’s Papers affair, launched just a week before the parliamentary election by the US-funded global media syndicate.
Orbán's government showed restraint erstwhile they attempted to confiscate their private property in Slovakia against cultural Hungarians under Benesh's decrees after planet War II. specified restraint is undoubtedly a prerequisite for the endurance and success of the Visegrad Group alliances. The expanding number of accusations against Hungary makes regional cooperation almost impossible, despite noble declarations coming from the fresh Czech-Slovak entente cordiale’.
Behind: Hungary Today
photo profile fb Zuzany Čaputova
