Hungarian government-sponsored propaganda papers enthusiastically greeted the results of the October 2017 Austrian parliamentary election. Origo exclaimed that “Viktor Orbán also won in the Austrian election” because of the victory of the conservative forces. In December, after the successful coalition negotiations between the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) led by Sebastian Kurz and the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), there was widespread optimism in Hungarian government circles about closer relations between Austria and Hungary. But soon enough, the new Austrian government announced its intention to substantially reduce the amount of child support for children of “guest workers.” The decision would hit Hungarians the hardest because of the large Hungarian contingent in the Austrian labor force. A few months later, Austria sued the European Union over allowing the expansion of the Paks nuclear plant.
In late January, Viktor Orbán had his first opportunity to meet Sebastian Kurz in person. During the train ride between Budapest and Vienna, Orbán had a video made on which he announced that “in Vienna he wants to sign an agreement on migration, the two countries’ joint defense, and mutual assistance.” Instead of reaching this ambitious goal, Orbán returned with a mere reiteration of long-held views shared by the two governments. They agreed not to harbor “illegal migrants”; they want to strengthen the Schengen borders; they don’t think that the quota system is working.
It was evident at the time that Kurz and Orbán don’t really like each other. Orbán was so disappointed with the results of the talks that he originally refused to hold a press conference after the meeting. Orbán did, however, manage to meet Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache of the far-right FPÖ. Orbán had been waiting for this meeting with “the man of the future,” as Orbán described him, since 2015. Although Austrian and English-language papers paid little attention to the Strache-Orbán meeting, Origo devoted a detailed article to the talks, which centered on “the closest, most professional, and friendliest relations” between FPÖ ministers in the Austrian government and their Hungarian counterparts.
For a while Orbán courted Kurz without much success. According Zoom.hu, he tried to lure him to Budapest during the campaign season, to no avail. On the other hand, he was most successful at developing close working relations with ministers and politicians of the Freedom Party. In just one month, during March, four FPÖ ministers visited Budapest to meet members of the Hungarian government.
The close relations between the Hungarian government and the FPÖ went beyond formal meetings and negotiations. Every February the Hungarian Embassy in Vienna holds the traditional St. Stephen Ball, to which, apparently, the Hungarians didn’t even bother to invite ÖVP politicians. Only far-right politicians were in attendance. Photos taken at the event show that Johann Gudenus, the leader of FPÖ’s parliamentary delegation, brought his whole family along, including his brother and mother. Johannes Hübner, whose presence on the FPÖ party list was vetoed because of his known anti-Semitism, was also at the ball. The Orbán government, it seems, unabashedly committed itself to close relations with the far-right party of the Austrian coalition while ignoring the major government party, the conservative ÖVP. Not the smartest move, if I may say so.
Ambassador János Perényi and his wife with the Gudenus family at the St. Stephen Ball, February 2018
I’m sure it’s not exactly a secret in ÖVP circles that Orbán has developed closer relations with their far-right coalition partners, but an interview Gudenus gave to Die Presse upset Austrian politicians mightily, at least for a few days. As the paper noted, Gudenus has “the reputation of being a provocateur and hardliner,” and thus he is quite capable of wreaking havoc around him. In this interview Gudenus spoke of “reliable rumors” that George Soros “had tried with a great deal of money to finance all possible political upheavals in Eastern Europe.” In addition, he accused Soros of being “partly responsible for the mass migration to Europe.”
In Austria, Soros-bashing is associated exclusively with Viktor Orbán. Opposition politicians were stunned that Gudenus had “moved up to the level of Orbán.” The former socialist chancellor, Christian Kern, called on the government to reconsider Gudenus’s status as the leader of FPÖ’s parliamentary caucus. Gudenus’s remarks have been widely considered anti-Semitic and thus condemned.
But even Kurz himself spoke out, saying that Johann Gudenus’s “foreign policy positions are not in line with the Austrian government’s.” Kurz accused him of “fueling conspiracy theories against George Soros” and also made it clear that he disapproves of Orbán’s anti-Soros campaign. He said that although the coalition is working more or less smoothly, the two parties have opposing views on many subjects, including Soros and the refugee issue. In fact, he strongly disagrees with Orbán’s policies. Othmar Karas, an ÖVP member of the European People’s Party in the European Parliament, found Gudenus’s words “astonishing and scandalous.” In his opinion, “there is no place in a responsible and serious Austrian foreign policy” for Orbán-like politics.
Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache naturally defended Gudenus and condemned “the automatic and hysterical outcry of the opposition.” But the fact remains that within ÖVP many were opposed to forming a coalition government with the extreme right, fearing exactly the kind of embarrassment people like Gudenus can bring on the Austrian government. Gudenus’s reputation in Austria is such that President Alexander Van der Bellen said back in December that he would refuse to accept any government of which Gudenus is a member.
The love affair between the Orbán government and the members of the Freedom Party continues. Kurz might not want to go to Budapest, but his deputy Strache is scheduled to visit the Hungarian capital soon. The Orbán government’s meddling in Austrian politics most likely adds unwelcome tension to a coalition that has enough problems without the helping hand of Viktor Orbán. The blatant preference Hungary shows for the smaller coalition partner will inevitably lead to strained relations with the Austrian People’s Party, which is, after all, the principal political formation in the country.