Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán met Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić on Sunday in Belgrade to coordinate the two countries’ coronavirus response, with Orbán asking for his Serbian counterpart for his understanding over Hungary’s decision to disallow Serbian citizens coming from Italy to enter Hungary.
Last Wednesday, as part Hungary’s state of emergency measures, the country reestablished border controls with neighboring Slovenia and Austria to ensure effective enforcement of the entry ban introduced yesterday on those arriving from Italy, China, South Korea, and Iran.
Hungarian citizens returning from these countries are exempt from the ban but must submit to a two-week voluntary quarantine under the threat of penalty.
The two prime ministers agreed that cross-border goods transports will go on, albeit with heightened security measures.
Hungary has a temporary fence along its border with Serbia, erected in the summer of 2015 at the onset of the first migration crisis and it is already the country’s most heavily guarded stretch of border due to its position on the Balkan route used by Middle Eastern and African migrants seeking to enter the European Union.
In what is quickly becoming the new etiquette in politics, Orbán and Vučić said goodbye in front of Vučić’ office with an elbow bump.
Title image: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) and Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vučić (R) bump elbows on Sunday in Belgrade. (source: Viktor Orbán’s Facebook page)
