Péter Magyar, whose Tisza party defeated Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in the country’s parliamentary elections on Sunday, has said he wants to continue Hungary’s ‘good relations with Georgia’. There has been considerable speculation on what the state of ties between Georgia and Hungary would be under Magyar, as Budapest has long been the ruling Georgian Dream party’s closest ally in the EU.
‘The fact that Victor Orbán’s government had strong ties with a country in the Balkans or anywhere else doesn’t mean that Hungary will have worse relations with the same country, but if Hungary had bad relations with the country, we will improve that’, Magyar said.
‘I look forward to visiting you in Tbilisi or elsewhere’, he added, responding to a question from the Georgian pro-government media outlet Rustavi 2.
At the same time, Magyar said, ‘I’m eager to work together, but I want to emphasise that we have no intention of interfering in the internal affairs of other countries’.
‘That’s not our style, and that is not the job of any European government; everyone is elected to support and represent the electorate of that country’.
For weeks running up to the vote, Georgian Dream and its allies had expressed hopes that the incumbent would remain in power, while the opposition were looking to see Orbán with his Fidesz party ousted. Orbán’s defeat removes the Georgian government’s closest ally within the EU, and a leader who has maintained friendly ties with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin.
Mikheil Gvadzabia
