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On Sunday, Viktor Orbán celebrated his fourth consecutive victory in Hungarian parliamentary elections. At the very start of his triumphant speech, the Hungarian Prime Minister sneeringly mocked the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him one of his opponents in the election campaign.
- Indeed, these Hungarian-Ukrainian relations are a bit of a problem for us," Ryszard Terlecki, the chairman of Law and Justice’s caucus and deputy speaker of Sejm, responded when asked for comment. However, the ruling camp has no intention to end its political friendship with the Hungarian prime minister. - We hope that this policy will undergo certain modifications and Orbán will remain our friend," Terlecki added.
In fact, Terlecki did not shy away from admitting that he was happy with the results of the parliamentary elections in Hungary. "Orbán's success convinces me that the left in Europe is in retreat and that other countries will probably follow in Hungary's footsteps", Terlecki concluded.
Speaker Terlecki had a chance to come out to the media and say: 'I do not respect, do not accept and do not condone such words of Victor Orbán’. Instead, he talked about the joy he felt in relation to the defeat of the supposedly "left-wing" Hungarian opposition" - criticized Tomasz Trela, vice-chairman of the Left-wing club. He added: "I have a feeling that for Kaczyński and Terlecki Europe is basically Hungary. They do not see that Europe is also Germany, France, Portugal, Spain or Scandinavia".
Viktor Orbán's words about the Ukrainian president were also not condemned by Mateusz Morawiecki. Instead, he called for "respect for democratic elections" in Hungary. - This is a supreme victory with a constitutional majority, so democratic elections must be respected. There is no need to use Hungary as a scapegoat for the real source of the problem in terms of EU’s policy towards the invasion," the Polish prime minister argued. According to Morawiecki, in the context of the sanctions imposed on Russia, it is not Hungary that is the main obstacle in the EU, but Germany.
As soon as the results of the elections were clear, official congratulations from the Kremlin immediately flowed to Budapest. Putin - as reported by the state agency TASS - expressed his conviction that "despite the difficult international situation, the further development of bilateral partnership relations fully corresponds to the interests of the peoples of Russia and Hungary."
For the Polish opposition, the matter is clear - one cannot simultaneously support Ukraine and maintain such close contacts with the Hungarian government. - Poland today is the ambassador of Ukraine's interests in the entire European Union. Orbán does not support Ukraine's interests, and today is an opportunity for Law and Justice to distance itself from him in no uncertain terms. It is necessary to say a clear "no '' to him and to all politicians who side with Putin," Beata Maciejewska, deputy chairwoman of the Left Club, said during a parliamentary session before adding:
"We are in a situation where the Russians are shooting people in the back of the head. And no country that supports Putin today can be excused for its lenient policy towards Russia."
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