Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's meeting with Viktor Orban, 2019 (photo: L.A.M., editing: Niv Maoz)
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will send a special envoy to Israel next week for talks with the new government.
According to two Israeli sources, the envoy is the head of Orban's office and the minister in the prime minister's office Gargli Goliash.
Meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and Viktor Orban, February 19, 2019 (Photo: Government Press Office, Amos Ben Gershom)
why is it important:
The leaders of the protest against the government's plan to weaken the judicial system as well as the leaders of the opposition compared the moves of Netanyahu and his government to those of Orban, who in the last decade took similar steps that weakened the judiciary and harmed democracy in Hungary.
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between the lines:
This will be the first visit of a senior member of the Hungarian government to Jerusalem since the establishment of the new government in Israel.
The previous government significantly cooled relations with Hungary, after many years in which Netanyahu as prime minister had a very close relationship with Orban.
Netanyahu has a very close relationship with Orban (Photo: Reuters)
In the news center:
The Israeli sources stated that Goliash will arrive in Israel at the beginning of next week.
He is expected to meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and other senior Israeli officials.
Next Monday, May 15, Orban's emissary will address the Israeli Council on Foreign Relations - a body of academics, former diplomats and former government officials.
A source familiar with the matter said that it was the Hungarian embassy that approached the council and suggested holding the event.
The title of the speech is: "Hungary: Democratic Legitimacy and National Interest in a Time of War in Europe".
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Orban is the only leader in the European Union who disapproves of the aggressive policy towards Russia and has even stopped some of the attempts to impose sanctions on Moscow.
In a speech at a conservative conference in Budapest last Thursday, Orban said that in Israel the conservative forces had won and sent a message of support for the legal coup.
"I see that even there (in Israel) the progressive left does not recognize the facts. But I have good news for Prime Minister Netanyahu - the more vocal the liberals are, the faster they will lose popularity. I say this from experience," Orban stressed.
He is considered an outcast in many countries, due to his government's policy of reducing democracy (Photo: Reuters)
reminder:
At the end of January, about a month after the inauguration of the government, Prime Minister Yair Netanyahu's son visited Budapest and spoke at a conference at a college with ties to Orban's ruling party.
During the visit, Yair Netanyahu met with Orban during a closed background briefing held by the Hungarian Prime Minister with several members of the media who participated in the conference.
Several of Netanyahu's loyalists, including some of the organizers of the demonstrations in favor of the legal coup, also visited Hungary in recent weeks and met with Orban.
The big picture:
Orban is considered an outcast in many Western countries due to his government's policy of reducing democracy in Hungary and legislation against the LGBT community. Orban was one of the only leaders in Europe who was not invited to the democracy summit that President Biden held a few weeks ago.
What they say:
There was no response from the Prime Minister's Office.
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Victor Urban
Hungary
