Prague, Czech Republic – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban will come to the Czech Republic for a one-day official visit on September 29.
The information was confirmed earlier this week by the PM’s press team following media reports of a possible visit.
Orban will meet with Czech counterpart Andrej Babis and hold talks on a wide range of bilateral and European issues, including the EU’s pandemic recovery fund, migration and European integration.
Since coming into office, both leaders have met numerous times, meetings that usually provide an opportunity for the two Visegrad allies to present a common front on key current issues.
Their last meeting dates back to only last week, at the Bled Strategic Forum held in Slovenia.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto is also expected to make the trip to discuss economic and investment opportunities between the two countries with Czech Minister of Industry, Trade and Transport Karel Havlicek.
Both should also discuss the possibility of a high-speed train connection linking Prague and Budapest.
Orban’s visit to Prague will come just a few days before key parliamentary elections in the Czech Republic, in which Prime Minister Babis’s ANO party is narrowly leading in the polls.
The last visit of the Hungarian Prime Minister to the Czech Republic dates back to January 2020, when he and Babis attended a concert at the Prague State Opera, which had just reopened after an extensive three-year reconstruction.
At the time, a group of Czech students had staged a protest to condemn the “extremely inappropriate” presence of Prime Minister Orban, who was then facing criticism for a recent law seen by critics as curtailing artistic freedom and strengthening governmental control and oversight over theaters in Hungary.
Prime Minister Babis is expected to travel to Budapest a few days before Orban’s visit, on September 23, to attend the 4th Budapest Demographic summit. Other attendees include the Prime Ministers of Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, as well as former US Vice-President Mike Pence.
Kafkadesk 
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