Who intervened at Orban against Austria? Sobotka says it wasn’t him
What happened in the summer of 2016: The Chancellor at the time Christian Kern traveled to his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban on entrance visit. It was the peak of the refugee crisis, and the grand coalition was in power in Austria. Kern had just become chancellor, Sebastian Kurz was foreign minister and prepared his leap to the top of the ÖVP, Wolfgang Sobotka War Minister of the Interior.
The political battle for the refugees was in full swing. Kurz pushed for a freeze on asylum, Kern said that the two ÖVP ministers Kurz and Sobotka should conclude an agreement with Orban so that Hungary does not continue to wave all refugees to Austria and Germany.
Preparations in Vienna
Then Kern’s inaugural visit to Orban in Budapest was scheduled. Before the inaugural visit, Kern said in the Council of Ministers in Vienna that he would propose to Orban that Orban should take back 5,000 refugees who had entered Austria via Hungary, in return Austria would pay for their accommodation in Hungary. Kern had previously made this political move with the first EU Commission President Jean Claude Juncker agreed.
In Budapest
When Kern presented his concerns to Orban, Orban grinned broadly and said: “You don’t want that at all.” A “colleague in government” of Kern called him, Orban and asked that Orban should leave the refugees in Austria so that Kern could not succeed in the negotiations have.
Embarrassed, Kern mumbled something about a “misunderstanding” and sure who it was supposed to be. Orban’s answer was: “Well, we are dealing with your ministers in the cause.”
End of 2016 story.
Sobotka’s dementia
A few days ago, Kern made the incident public and ventilated that the caller in Budapest was the interior minister Wolfgang Sobotka acted. When asked about this by the KURIER, the current President of the National Council, Sobotka, denied: “That is simply not true. I think everyone can make their own judgment as to why this accusation comes years later.”
The fact is that Sobotka was at the Hungarian Minister of the Interior at the time Sandor Pinter constantly trying to ensure that Hungary complies with the Dublin rules and does not simply wave the refugees through to Austria and Germany. An intervention in the opposite direction – that Hungary refugees not should take back, “so it would have been somewhat superfluous,” adds Sobotka’s spokesman when asked by KURIER.
Who was it?
Who was it that intervened against Austria’s interests in Budapest at the time for reasons of party politics?
Kern’s representation is provided by Thomas Drozda, Kerns Princess Chancellery Minister, supported. Drozda’s Hungarian counterpart Janos Lazar I told him, Drozda, exactly the same thing during the trip in 2016.
When KURIER asked Drozda and Kern, it turned out that the Hungarians did not name the intervening minister. Drozda thinks it could also be about Sebastian Kurz Can act, because it is obvious that Kurz knew Orban through the EPP or foreign policy.
In any case, the opposition wants to clarify the matter: The Neos want to deal with the ÖVP-U committee, the FPÖ has announced a parliamentary question.
Why didn’t Kern ever say anything?
Why has Christian Kern never said anything about the matter? Kern tells the KURIER that as chancellor he should have removed the responsible minister from the government in the summer of 2016 if this action had become public. But that would have meant new elections and burned the bridges to the ÖVP for the subsequent government formation.
It remains unclear why he didn’t tell the story later in the election campaign or contributed it to the Mitterlehner book. The two spoilers say that “so many monstrous things happened that they no longer had one present among many”.