Speaking in London on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Hungary seeks to ensure that the rights of Hungarians living in Britain are not curtailed when Britain leaves the EU.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the result of the US presidential election. Referring to the victory of Republican candidate Donald Trump, he said that the world has always benefited whenever it has managed to release itself from the captivity of currently dominant ideological trends.
As part of his one-day official visit, Mr. Orbán met British prime minister Theresa May in Downing Street. On Wednesday evening after the meeting he told Hungarian journalists that the two leaders had agreed that the issue of workers’ rights must be settled on the basis of the principle of reciprocity; this means that if there is no curtailment of the rights acquired by British citizens residing in Europe, the position of the British government is that naturally neither can there be curtailment of the rights of EU nationals working in Britain.
Mr. Orbán stated that this was an important outcome of his meeting with the British prime minister. He added that there are some one hundred and fifty thousand Hungarian citizens earning a living through jobs linked to Britain – either working in Britain, or as the employees of British-owned businesses operating in Hungary. “They have interests which we must protect. So it is in our interest that the trade aspect of British-Hungarian relations should continue to be open and free in the future”, the Prime Minister said.
With regard to the result of the US presidential election, Mr. Orbán stated that the world has always benefited whenever it has managed to release itself from the captivity of currently dominant ideological trends. “In my view, this is what has happened just now in the United States. This also gives the rest of the Western world the chance to free itself from the captivity of ideologies, of political correctness, and of modes of thought and expression which are remote from reality: the chance to come back down to earth [and] see the world as it really is”, the Prime Minister said.