Hungarian Prime Minister to arrive in Tbilisi next week

Viktor Orban to come to Georgia

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban told reporters that he will visit Georgia next week with a government delegation. Before the meeting of EU leaders in Granada, Orban said that he is the most devoted supporter of Georgia’s European integration. According to the Hungarian prime minister, he will come to Georgia to show his support for it.

“It is totally unfair that you are not promised that you will become [an EU member], because you have done a good job. We need you very much,” Orban said.

Asked by a journalist why Georgia was denied candidate status last year, Orban said it was because of the “selfishness” of EU leaders:

“The leaders are selfish. They don’t want to let you in and give you the financial resources you need… which is totally unfair to your country, so we have to share what we have because we need you, you have a strategic position.

I will be in Tbilisi next week. There will be a meeting of the intergovernmental commission in Tbilisi. The Hungarian government will be in Georgia. All ministers will be with me in Tbilisi.”

The informal meeting of EU leaders in Granada will discuss EU enlargement, migration issues and the strategic agenda for 2024-2029.

• “Georgian authorities are trying to prevent the country from obtaining EU candidate status”
• British MP: Georgian Dream is a pro-Putin and pro-Russian party

In May this year, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili spoke at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference in Budapest, also called the “Anti-LGBT Forum”, where he said that the Hungarian people were very lucky to have “such a wise and far-sighted” leader. “Forces opposing the truth are trying to achieve their goals through LGBT propaganda”.

According to Garibashvili, the vast majority of Georgian society shares traditional conservative family values, and these values are not just a legacy of the past. According to Garibashvili, they are the living present – the environment in which “we grew up and want to bring up our children.”

Garibashvili’s speech in Hungary was condemned by the European Socialists party, of which Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party was a member. The European Socialists later expelled it from its ranks.