Premiere in parliament

President of the National Council Rosenkranz brings Orban as a state guest

Viktor Orbán at a meeting of the right-wing "Patriots for Europe" on October 17 - next Thursday he will pay a visit to the Austrian parliament.

(Bild: AFP)

Surprise on the national holiday around the schedule of the new blue National Council President Walter Rosenkranz: he receives none other than Hungary's long-term Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as the first state guest of his term of office in the House.

The visit, which was first reported by "Heute", was confirmed to krone.at on Saturday evening. Orbán, who is actually in Vienna for a long-planned discussion event, will "also visit Parliament" next Thursday. A meeting with FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl is also on the agenda, at which they intend to exchange views.

Rosenkranz was only elected First President of the National Council and successor to Wolfgang Sobotka (ÖVP) on Thursday. However, the controversial FPÖ politician only received 100 out of 162 valid votes in the vote during the constituent session of the National Council. This corresponds to 61.7 percent.

As part of the celebrations to mark October 26, Rosenkranz made his first appearance as host at the open day in Parliament. 

President of the National Council Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ, center) with Peter Haubner (ÖVP/Second President of the National Council) and Doris Bures (SPÖ/Third President of the National Council)

(Bild: APA/MAX SLOVENCIK)

With Orbán, Rosenkranz is now meeting a no less controversial guest in the House - the Hungarian prime minister is known to be fiercely anti-EU, is considered a friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin and relies on right-wing allies.

However, his right-wing nationalist Fidesz party has recently come under increasing pressure at home in Hungary and is neck and neck with the conservative opposition party Tisza in the polls. For the first time in almost 20 years, Fidesz was even trailing in two polls.

"The vast majority of Hungarians have had enough of corruption, lies and propaganda," explained Tisza leader Péter Magyar, a former Orbán companion, in a recent ORF interview. He had only visited Vienna himself last Thursday and emphasized that the capital, with around 100,000 Hungarians, is "probably the second largest Hungarian city abroad after London".

During his meeting with supporters, Magyar made several ironic references to the Orbán government's propaganda, which has been portraying Vienna as an extremely dangerous city for years due to migration.