New Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar visited Austria on Thursday in an effort to reinvigorate ties, as part of an inaugural tour of neighbouring states after taking office on May 9.
Magyar was in Vienna at the invitation of Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker of the Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP). He arrived from Poland, where he completed his first foreign trip in his new role.
Both leaders expressed a desire to bring a new quality to the long-standing relationship between Austria and Hungary. A joint government session in Hungary in September would send a corresponding signal, Magyar said.
Relations between Vienna and Budapest are currently clouded by an environmental dispute. For decades, quarries on the Austrian side of the border have extracted materials containing harmful asbestos and used it in the region.
Many thousands of families in Hungary have been affected, Magyar said, demanding compensation payments from Austria.
Magyar’s advice on populism
Magyar won a two-thirds majority in the Hungarian parliamentary election in April with his centre-right Tisza party, defeating the right-wing populist Viktor Orbán after 16 years in power.
The 45-year-old recommended closeness to citizens as a remedy against populism and extremism.
“It is quite simple: politics must be about people,” he said at a press conference in Vienna. “Facebook posts and press conferences are not enough. You have to go out to the people.”
Magyar conducted part of his election campaign from a 30-year-old van and visited more than 700 municipalities in Hungary over two years. “When people sense that you are genuine, they vote for you,” he added.
The new prime minister has announced a systemic change of direction from Orbán’s authoritarian government, which dismantled the rule of the law in the country.