Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has declined to comment on statements of his Croatian counterpart that Croatia's judiciary had more respect for the Hungarian judiciary than vice versa.
First of all, I fully respect your Prime Minister. He is a great man and we have excellent bilateral cooperation. Secondly, we extremely appreciate the Croatian people with whom we have much in common, from history, friendship and cooperation in recent years. We love and assist Croatia and I believe this is reciprocal. Thirdly, the friendship is extremely valuable and I don't want to provoke any conflict by responding to any criticism from Croatia towards Hungary, except when it comes to the respect for the Hungarian people. This is not the case and there is no reason to respond, Orban told Croatian reporters in Brussels on Friday, after the conclusion of a European Union summit at which Milanovic was an observer.
Upon his arrival in Brussels on Thursday, Milanovic said that Croatia would abide by a final verdict regarding a traffic accident involving the First Croatian Deputy Prime Minister, Radimir Cacic, adding that Croatia's judiciary had more respect for Hungarian judiciary than vice versa.
"Remember the case against one Hungarian entrepreneur. The (Croatian) State Prosecutor's Office wanted to file an indictment, and I won't go into the details of the indictment, and the Hungarian side said it was a matter of national security. The State Prosecutor's Office (DORH) wanted to prove a serious crime, but the position of the Hungarian side was, we're not interested, no further comment," Milanovic said yesterday.
The Hungarian state prosecution last year rejected DORH's request to interview Zsolt Hernadi, CEO of Hungarian oil company MOL, over allegations that he gave a EUR 10 million bribe to former Croatian PM Ivo Sanader, with the explanation that it would endanger Hungary's security.
"Our message is that we have a lot more respect. That's the rule of law. Let's see who respects the law and justice and who only likes to talk about it. There are well-meaning critics and those that aren't, and I would like it, when we think differently, that our motives are honest, but I'm afraid it isn't so," said Milanovic.
On Friday, the county court in Kaposvar found Cacic guilty of the traffic accident with two fatalities and gave him a 22-month suspended sentence with three years' probation.
PM Orban said today that as a law expert, he could say that it was not difficult to make a distinction between one case in which two persons lost their lives and a business discussion on whether management was good or bad.
"The distinction is clear," he stressed.
