Gulyas: Helmut Kohl remains role model for Christian Democrats
Orbán discusses economic and political changes with former Austrian chancellor
Orbán briefed Schuessel of Hungary’s successful pandemic protection efforts and its vaccination programme. They also discussed the growing importance of central Europe in the bloc, and changes in European party politics, Bertalan Havasi, the PM’s press chief, told MTI.
The meeting was also attended by Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas.
Schuessel, who also heads the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, held a speech in Budapest yesterday, marking the fourth anniversary of the death of Helmut Kohl, German chancellor and an architect of the unified Germany.
Gulyas: Helmut Kohl remains role model for Christian Democrats
Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl has remained a role model for Christian Democrats to this day, the prime minister’s chief of staff told the Budapest Europe Speech event on Wednesday.
“He was the right man at the right time, a statesman who rightly recognised a one-time opportunity and acted accordingly,” Gulyas said.
He cited Kohl saying that “it was the Hungarians who removed the first stone from the Berlin wall” when opening the border for East Germans to Austria.
Gulyas also said that Hungary and Germany had many economic, cultural and political ties going back to some thousand years and added that “we consider all German-speaking nations our friends”.
He also said that the close-knit network of relations go way beyond some everyday differences in opinion.
At the event co-hosted by the Foundation for a Civic Hungary and the Konrad Adenauer Foundation’s Hungary office, former Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel, the chairman of the Adenauer Foundation’s board of trustees, also commemorated the work, achievements and intellectual heritage of Helmut Kohl.
