Slovak News Back to the news
Bugar: We Would Welcome Meeting With Orban, but Won't Beg for It
Monday 13 December 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Bratislava, December 13 (TASR) - If Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban isn't interested in meeting representatives of Slovak-Hungarian party Most-Hid during his official visit to Bratislava on Tuesday it means that the Hungarian side is not interested in co-operating with the party, Most-Hid chairman Bela Bugar has said in an interview for TASR, adding that they "won't beg" for the meeting.
"Mr. Orban knows that we would welcome such a meeting. This is up to him. He is the head of the Hungarian Government. This means that when he ignores us, the Hungarian Government has thus decided," he stressed. He added that Most-Hid will adapt to whatever transpires.
Bugar confirmed that informal talks between Most-Hid and the Hungarian side concerning potential co-operation have taken place recently and Bugar's party has been waiting for a reply.
"We have voters here, in Slovakia. When the Hungarian Government wants to co-operate and wants to reduce the tension [between Slovakia and Hungary - ed. note], we're partners to that. But only partners. There's no vassal or dependent relation," he pointed out when ethnic-Hungarian party SMK was mentioned in a question. [SMK – which is more strongly associated with irredentism and thus more closely tied to Orban's FIDESZ party – used to be in Slovak Parliament before Most-Hid emerged, but left the House in June after failing to reach the -percent threshold at the polls - ed. note]
Orban is making the visit to Bratislava on the schedule of his tour around all the EU-member countries before Hungary takes over the rotating EU Presidency in January. He has already paid a visit to Sweden, Denmark, Latvia and Lithuania.
Hungarian Prime Minister Orban is to meet his Slovak counterpart Iveta Radicova and discuss Slovak-Hungarian relations, as well as current political issues concerning co-operation within the EU. The two Premiers first met during the Visegrad Four (V4) summit held on July 20 in Budapest.
After the summit, where Slovakia took over the one-year chairmanship of the V4, Radicova said that the relations between Slovakia and Hungary have improved, with Slovak-Hungarian mixed committees re-established to address controversial issues. Orban assured his Slovak counterpart that Hungarian representatives have no interest in engaging in any conflict with Slovakia.
All rights reserved. Any publishing or further dissemination of press releases and photographs from TASR's resources without TASR's prior written approval constitutes a violation of the Copyrights Act.
