Editorial: Plus ça change. Or Maybe not.

The images were of a meeting in London on May 8 between Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and his British opposite number David (now Lord) Cameron, the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, to give him his full official title.

The two politicians know each other well. Szijjártó is the longest-serving foreign minister in the European Union, having taken up the post on Sep. 23, 2014, when he replaced Tibor Navracsics, who had resigned to take up his role as a European Commissioner. Cameron, of course, was British Prime Minister from 2010 until 2016, when what he took to be a calculated risk with his party and country over a referendum on whether to leave the European Union proved, in fact, to be a massive miscalculation.

Having campaigned to remain within the EU and lost, Cameron felt he could not stay on as PM and resigned. Rather than become what they call a backbencher, those Members of Parliament from the ruling party who play no direct role in government, he also stood down as an MP, claiming he did not want to prove a distraction to whoever succeeded him.

When he was the premier, he and Hungary’s Viktor Orbán became firm allies. It was a bond forged in 2014 during the process to appoint the former Luxembourg PM Jean-Claude Juncker as the president of the European Commission. Describing Juncker as the “ultimate Brussels insider” who could not reform the EU, Cameron thought he had the support of others, most notably Germany. However, when it came to the crunch, only two countries voted “No,” the United Kingdom and Hungary.

A former British Ambassador has told me several times how strongly Cameron felt about the support Hungary had offered when no one else did, describing Orbán as “a man of his word.”

Fast forward to now, and Cameron unexpectedly occupies once again one of the four Great Offices of State: the PM, the Chancellor (finance minister), the foreign secretary and the home secretary (interior minister). It is clear from the photos the two top diplomats are comfortable in each other’s company. But it is also clear there is more water between the two sides than was the case in 2014.

Posting on X under the headline “Allies in London,” the Hungarian Embassy said the two countries are “in agreement on many important issues and have very different views on other important issues. We believe that arms deliveries do not bring peace, only the risk of escalating the war.”

David Cameron had a slightly different view, saying: “The UK is committed to backing Ukraine for as long as it takes. I met Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjáartó today to discuss this and the importance of maintaining Euro-Atlantic unity.”

To paraphrase Alphonse Karr, “The more things stay the same, the more they change.”

Robin Marshall

Editor-in-chief

This editorial was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of May 17, 2024.