Polish and Irish PMs criticise Hungary over leaked talks with Russia

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin have sharply criticised the Hungarian government after the exposure of direct coordination between the foreign ministers of Hungary and Russia.

Source: The Guardian, citing Tusk and Martin in Warsaw, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Tusk and Martin said the tone of the recorded conversation shows an "unacceptable" and "deferential" tone unbefitting a minister from an EU country.

Tusk made unusually strong remarks.

Quote from Tusk: "What we have heard, and what we had already suspected, is merely a confirmation of the deeply disturbing political dependence of Viktor Orbán's government and his foreign minister, Mr Szijjártó, directly on the authorities in Moscow.

It has been a long time, if ever, since I have heard something so disheartening. What these recordings have revealed is more than just the political dependency of the Budapest government on Moscow; it has exposed just how unacceptable and bizarre this relationship truly is.

A foreign minister of a European nation – a member of the European Union – reporting to the Russian foreign minister on the completion of a task and asking for patience because he knows he still has several more tasks to carry out? One could hardly imagine anything more repulsive. It is absolutely disqualifying."

More details: Tusk stressed, however, that Poland loves Hungary and that Poles love the Hungarian people.

Quote from Tusk: "The tragedy is that Viktor Orbán's government – certainly Orbán himself and Minister Szijjártó – effectively left the European Union a long time ago."

More details: Martin joined in the criticism, saying: "I think it is a very sinister development. It confirms what many suspected – that the Hungarian government has been doing the bidding for Russia within the European Union for quite some time."

Quote from Martin: "The deferential tone in the conversation was alarming, and it really is a very serious situation that within the European Union you have that type of behaviour, and it is very revealing of the relationship between the Hungarian government and the Russian government. … It's unacceptable."

Background:

• Audio recordings of conversations between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó have been leaked to the media, shedding light on their communications amid the scandal over Budapest's alleged passing of details of closed-door EU discussions to Moscow.
• Among the recordings was one concerning Szijjártó's lobbying to lift EU sanctions against Gulbahor Ismailova, the sister of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
• Following this, Szijjártó once again criticised the European Union's sanctions policy against Russia.
• The European Commission said that Szijjártó had been warned about the inadmissibility of disclosing such information before the leak.

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