"Vienna Declaration"

Orbán & Kickl “want to give power back to the people”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (right) and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl shake hands.

(Bild: Photonews.at Georges Schneider/APA/Photonews.at/Georges Schneider)

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl signed a "Vienna Declaration" on Thursday. This affirms a "neighborly friendship" and "unshakeable solidarity". Contents include the "organized abuse of the right of asylum" and more direct democracy.

"Reforming Europe and the EU does not mean pushing ahead with centralism and making the institutions ever stronger, but giving power back to the people and their elected representatives in the parliaments of the member states," the text reads. Brussels must lose political significance, direct democracy and parliamentarianism in the home states should be strengthened.

In the declaration, FPÖ leader Herbert Kickl and Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán also speak out in favor of the fight against illegal migration and the abuse of asylum as well as against "an absurd multiplicity of genders" other than women and men. Children are being influenced by "left-wing educational experiments". The EU should work for "peace, freedom, security and prosperity for as many citizens as possible", it continues.

Orbán (left) with National Council President Walter Rosenkranz

(Bild: APA/Tobias Steinmaurer)

At the reception in Parliament

(Bild: APA/Tobias Steinmaurer)

Rosenkranz: "Fortunate coincidence"
 Orbán met both Kickl and National Council President Walter Rosenkranz (FPÖ) in Vienna on Thursday. "This time it is in parliament - we are still working on the next time it will be in the Federal Chancellery," said Kickl. The FPÖ and Orbán's Fidesz both belong to the new far-right European group "Patriots for Europe".

The appointment was a happy coincidence, even if "some observers cannot understand it", said Rosenkranz. Austria and Hungary share half a millennium of common history in Europe. Bilateral cooperation was particularly important in border protection, but also in economic terms.

The Hungarian head of government also mentioned necessary reforms to European institutions and the need to strengthen national parliaments. He emphasized that relations with Austria were friendly.

Here you can see the Facebook video from Orbán's page:

Orbán made fun of demonstrators
Criticism of the visit or the right-wing politician came, as reported, from the SPÖ, the NEOS and the Greens. A number of demonstrators had gathered in front of the parliament. Orbán made fun of them in a short video on Facebook. This first shows the participants, then the insert "Five minutes later" and finally the same spot without any demonstrators.