Péter Szijjártó

Péter Szijjártó in 2018

Péter Szijjártó (born 30 October 1978) is a Hungarian politician who has been Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade since 2014. He previously served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. In June 2012, he was appointed to State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations of the Prime Minister's Office.

Szijjártó joined Fidesz in 1998. He was elected to member of the municipal government in the same year in the city of Győr, and then he obtained a mandate between 2006 and 2010 again. In 2005 he was elected to president of Fidelitas, the youth organization of Fidesz and he occupied this position until 2009. He first became a member of the National Assembly in 2002. He received mandates in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 as well; currently he is serving his fourth term as Member of Parliament.

Quotes

• Following 2015, the Ukrainians step by step, law after law, hurt and reduced the Hungarian national community’s rights. The fact is, they took from ethnic Hungarians the right to access the entire spectrum of national language education. This not only violates bilateral agreements at such a level, including even the European Union’s laws, which puts to question many of Ukraine’s declared intentions. When the war started, we put this entire question in a bracket. We didn’t forget it, we only put it in a bracket. Because we thought it was not correct to come forward with this question during a war. Then, recently, Ukraine adopted another law in connection with the national minorities, which was a law that further worsened the situation for the national minorities. And they took more rights from the national minorities.
  • Szijjártó Condemns Ukraine’s Oppression Of Hungarian Minority, 11 February 2023.

• Hungary is a sovereign country, and no one from outside can tell us how to live.
  • Hungarian diplomat lashes out at US ambassador's comments, 3 February 2023.

• We will not support any meaningful integration approach towards NATO or the European Union with regard to Ukraine until the rights of the Hungarian national community are restored in Ukraine.
  • NATO has decided: they will bypass the Hungarian government, they will definitely convene the Ukraine summit, 21 March 2023.

• In the last few days, news has emerged that the president of Ukraine (Volodymyr Zelenskyy) has threatened to detonate the Druzhba oil pipeline to Hungary. We are all aware that Hungary is currently supplied with oil through this very pipeline. If no more oil were to come to Hungary through this pipeline, the Hungary's oil supply would simply not be physically possible. Not to mention the fact that other countries are also fundamentally dependent on the Druzhba pipeline for their oil supplies. Therefore, such a threat is obviously against Hungary's sovereignty because the security of energy supply is a matter of sovereignty. Therefore, if someone calls for Hungary's energy supply to be made impossibile, they are in effect attacking Hungary's sovereignty.
  • From a tweet of Zoltan Kovacs, 17 May 2023.