Hungary’s Orban plans two-day visit to Georgia, EU labels it private initiative

This was announced by the spokesman for the Hungarian government, Zoltan Kovacs.

According to him, Orban will visit Georgia on October 28-29  at the invitation of Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze. The head of the Hungarian government will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, Economy Minister Marton Nagy, and Finance Minister Mihai Varga.

At the same time, a senior EU diplomat told Politico that the trip by Orban, whose country currently holds the EU Council presidency, should be seen as ‘another solo effort by Orbán, who is traveling in a national capacity and, as the Council presidency, expressly does not speak for the European Union to the outside world.’

A spokesperson for the Hungarian government said that Budapest congratulates the ruling Georgian Dream party ‘for winning and maintaining the trust of the Georgian people and is ready to deepen cooperation based on mutual respect and support Georgia's European integration path’.

"There is nothing new under the sun: Saturday's elections in Georgia did not produce a Brussels or liberal mainstream winner, but a sovereign, peace-focused, family-oriented ruling party that openly prioritises national interests," Szijjarto said.

• Parliamentary elections were held in Georgia on Saturday, October 26. Over 99% of the votes have been counted, with the ruling Georgian Dream party leading the pack. In addition, the Georgian opposition election coalition For Change has assessed the official results of the parliamentary elections and put forward a demand to Ivanishvili.
• The Georgian opposition won the parliamentary elections abroad by a large margin.
• On October 27, international observers from the OSCE, Council of Europe, NATO and the European Parliament stated that Georgia's parliamentary elections were marred by entrenched polarisation and rhetoric that put pressure on voters.