Slovak PM Robert Fico (l) and Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán (r) shake hands during their meeting in Budapest on January 16, 2024. (source: TASR)
Several days after Robert Fico’s administration faced another round of nationwide anti-government protests, Slovak Prime Minister Fico paid an official visit to Hungary to meet his counterpart Viktor Orbán.
“We’ve been waiting for this meeting for years,” said the Hungarian premier.
Their Tuesday meeting was their 33rd bilateral meeting since they first met in spring 2012. Prior to that, Hungarian-Slovak relations were far from perfect because the Fico government played the anti-Hungarian card. That was then, but the current situation couldn’t be more different from that in the bygone days. A case in point: the Hungarian government helped Fico in the campaign ahead of last year’s parliamentary elections.
Today, observers see the two leaders as the closest allies at the EU level.
