Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has expressed his astonishment at the changes in Germany over the past few years. Germany no longer looks the same as it did ten years ago, Orban told Hungarian state radio station Kossuth on Friday during his visit to Berlin. “It no longer tastes the same as it used to, it no longer smells the same as it used to, this whole Germany is no longer the Germany that our grandparents and parents used as an example for us.”
Previous generations would have said to their children: “Son, if you want to see hard-working people, then go to Germany, if you want to see well-organized work in Germany, if you want to see order, then go where there is order,” Orban continued. Now, however, Germany is “a colorful, changed, multicultural world” in which migrants are “no longer guests.” “That is a very big change,” Orban said.
Orban will be visiting Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in Berlin on Friday. The reason for the meeting is Hungary’s regular assumption of the EU Council Presidency on July 1, as the German government announced in advance. There are no plans to meet the press. The 61-year-old has been criticized for years for the erosion of democracy in his country and is at odds with Brussels on issues such as migration policy and support for Ukraine.
