Hungarian Prime Minister-in-waiting Péter Magyar pledged to continue what he called “good relations” with Georgia in his first comment on the country after voters chose him to replace Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Georgian Dream, in the April 12 parliamentary elections.
“Obviously, we will continue good relations with Georgia,” Magyar said during an April 13 press conference in Hungarian, per a translation provided at the scene, in response to a question from Georgia’s pro-government Rustavi 2 reporter about whether the new government in Budapest would maintain relations with Tbilisi and pursue any “closer cooperation” with the Georgian government.
“I would like to say in general that the fact that Viktor Orbán’s government had strong ties with a country in the Balkans or anywhere else does not mean that Hungary will have less relations with the same country,” Magyar said. “But if Hungary had bad relations with the country, we will improve that, because it is in our shared interest to work together, to cooperate, and to prosper together,” he added.
“I am happy to visit you in Tbilisi or elsewhere, and I’m looking forward to working with you,” he added. “But we are not going to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries, we will not try to influence elections in your country or North Macedonia or anywhere. That’s not our style, and that is not a job of any European government. Everyone is elected to support and represent the electorate of that country.”
Hungary under Viktor Orbán has in recent years been the closest European partner of the Georgian Dream government, which has remained increasingly isolated from the country’s traditional Western partners, especially after the disputed 2024 parliamentary elections, amid what is widely seen as its democratic backsliding and authoritarian shift.
While Budapest has remained among the few European destinations for Georgian Dream officials’ trips, Hungary was also reportedly exerting its veto power to block more resolute measures by Brussels, including sanctions, in response to Tbilisi’s anti-democratic actions.
Georgian Dream Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze, who last visited Budapest on March 21 to address the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) of far-right leaders and endorse Orbán before the pivotal vote, congratulated Magyar and his Tisza party on the election victory “on behalf of the Georgian people and the Government of Georgia” on the morning of April 13, while thanking Orbán for “outstanding and steadfast support for Georgia’s national interests and the Georgian people over the years.”
Opposition Magyar and his Tisza party’s landslide victory in the April 12 parliamentary elections, which ended Viktor Orbán’s 16-year rule, has reverberated in Georgia, offering renewed hope to those resisting Georgian Dream’s rule.
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