“We absolutely cannot support the appointment of a secretary general who in the past wanted to bring Hungary to its knees,” Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said. Mark Rutte has regularly criticized nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban's attacks on the rule of law in recent years.
The name of the resigning head of the Dutch government, who is responsible for current affairs, has been circulating insistently for months. Hungary, the only EU member to maintain close bilateral ties with the Kremlin, was the last country to ratify Sweden's accession to NATO.