Orban, Macron agree to disagree, call each other partners

BUDAPEST - Visiting French President Emmanuel Macron and his host, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, emphasized partnership but acknowledged their differences in a joint press statement delivered here on Monday.

Last week, Macron described Orban as a "political adversary but a European partner" with whom it was possible to find compromise.

Orban, who opened Monday's press event, quoted Macron's words and assured him that his government also considered European partnership of utmost importance.

Thanking Macron for his visit, Orban recalled that the last time a French president traveled to Hungary was in 2007.

"Hungary's relationship with France is based on respect," Orban said, listing three major areas where there was agreement with the French president.

"We both love our country, we are working to strengthen Europe and we have set ourselves the goal of creating strategic autonomy for Europe," Orban underlined.

"We support the policy of common European defense capabilities, nuclear energy and a strong European farming sector," he said. The two countries' economies both depend heavily on nuclear power and Budapest and Paris are pushing the EU to promote nuclear energy and recognize it as a green investment.

The French president said the two countries agreed on the need for a strong Europe.

Macron's visit came on the eve of France's takeover of the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU on Jan 1, 2022.

"We will have the opportunity to exchange views on the digital transition," which is an important ambition of the French Presidency, Macron said, stressing the importance of dialogue on contentious issues. The current sources of disagreement and tension between the two leaders include LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) rights and migration.

On the latter issue, Macron said that Europe will have to come up with a new initiative and that he will discuss this in detail with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki during their scheduled meeting later in the day.

"We need to think together as Europeans in order to find solutions for defending our borders in a more effective way, and we also need to think about ways of taking joint action," he said.

According to the European Commission, Hungary fails to uphold EU standards on the rule of law and democracy, a charge denied by Budapest.

In Budapest, Macron was scheduled to attend a meeting of the leaders of the Visegrad Group of countries (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia), and to meet the leaders of Hungary's opposition parties.