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The Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned the German ambassador on October 3 over comments she made about the Hungarian government and relations between Budapest and Berlin.
Ambassador Julie Gross reportedly told a diplomatic event to mark German Unity Day in Budapest that Hungary “is on a path that is leading it away from its friends” and the trust that Hungary has earned is eroding.
There has been a “whole series of incidents, theories, measures, and provocations that…raise doubts about Hungary’s trustworthiness,” she was quoted as saying.
Her comments angered the Hungarian government, prompting Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto to summon her, saying the comments were “totally unacceptable.”
“She gravely interfered in Hungary’s internal affairs in a way that violated the sovereignty of our country,” he said on Facebook.
“We expect respect from ambassadors serving in our country in all cases, and therefore the ambassador’s speech is totally unacceptable,” he added.
In her comments on October 3, Gross also denounced Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s self-described peace mission in July over Russia’s war in Ukraine, which involved visits to Ukraine, Russia, China, and the United States.
Orban made the tour immediately after Hungary took over the European Union’s rotating presidency on July 1, enraging fellow EU and NATO leaders by meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow during his trip.
Gross also called out the Hungarian government for holding up the NATO membership bids of Finland and Sweden, calling the move a “farce” and criticized the Hungarian government’s pro-Russian policy at length.
“I assume that for you — Hungarian voters, regardless of your political persuasion — this increasingly leads to the question: How does this serve my interests and how does it make my life better as a Hungarian?” she was quoted as saying.
The diplomatic spat came after Orban’s political director commented on a podcast about how Hungary would have handled an invasion by Russian forces.
Political director Balazs Orban said that he thinks the lesson from the 1956 revolution, which was put down by the Soviet Union, is that it is not advisable to resist in the event of a Russian military attack.
“Just starting from ’56, we probably wouldn’t have done what President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy did two and a half years ago because it’s irresponsible, because it seems that he took his country into a war of defense,” Balazs Orban said on September 26 on the Mandiner podcast.
Balazs Orban later apologized and said that he would fight with a gun in his hand if Russia attacked Hungary. Viktor Orban initially stood up for his political director but later said he had made a mistake.
Gross and French Ambassador Jonathan Lacote reportedly delivered a joint protest over Balazs Orban’s comments to the Hungarian government.
RFE/RL reported that the protest advised that if Hungary, as a NATO member state, indeed took such a stance on the issue of common defense, it is contrary to the spirit of the military alliance and offensive to the other alliance members.
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