Czechs boycott Visegrád 4 meeting due to Hungary’s russian position

One of the meetings of the Visegrád Four summit, with the participation of the parliament speakers, was canceled because the Czechs decided to boycott it because of Hungary, which maintains a position loyal to russia.

Euractiv reports that the speaker of the lower house, Markéta Pekarová Adamová, and the speaker of the Senate, Miloš Vystrčil, refused to sit at the same table with the Hungarian side, because of which Slovakia, which is hosting the summit, canceled the meeting.

According to the Czech publication Seznam Zprávy, the Polish Sejm and Senate speakers were also planning a boycott.

The speaker of Hungary's unicameral parliament, László Kövér, expressed regret at the cancellation of the meeting, saying that the Czech colleagues' remarks about Hungary "are disrespectful, do not correspond to the facts and call into question the right of the Hungarian government to conduct policies per Hungary's national interests."

At the same time, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala will still go to the summit scheduled for November 24. For him, this will be the first Visegrád Four summit since taking office.

"I think it's not a secret for anyone that Hungary's approach is very different from the policy of other Visegrád countries. However, and this is important, our dialogue has led to Hungary supporting all key decisions at the EU level," Fiala said.

As the publication notes, this is not the first such case. In March, Slovakia had to cancel a meeting of Visegrád defense ministers after the Polish and Czech ministers decided not to participate.

We will remind you that the other day, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Péter Szijjártó, once again criticized the EU sanctions against russia and said that the leaders who supported it should resign.