The German news agency DPA has been accused by Hungarian government officials of misrepresenting the remarks of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán during his state of the nation address on Saturday.
Hungary’s State Secretary for International Communication Zoltán Kovács took to social media on Sunday to slam the German media outlet for “fake news.”
“This DE press got it wrong. PM Orbán didn’t hint at leaving EU. On the contrary, he said: ‘We, for our part, want to keep the EU together… the EU only has a future if we can stay together.’ Behold, the German fake news factory at work,” Kovács wrote on Twitter.
In his About Hungary blog, Kovács wrote that contrary to what DPA had reported, Orbán did not say his country wanted to leave the European Union.
The government minister emphasized that although Orbán did indeed talk about the challenges of the relationship between Hungary and the European Union, he certainly did not say what the DPA had in its headline, which was subsequently adopted by several major German media: “Orbán pointed out that Hungary could leave the EU.”
“No, that’s not true,” Kovács wrote. According to him, the Hungarian prime minister actually said:”For our part, we want to keep the European Union together. That is why we have repeatedly shown tolerance to Brussels and Berlin.”
Orbán spoke about the current situation in Hungary and the vision he envisages for the country if the voters reelect his government in the parliamentary elections on April 3.
