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Budapest: The Foreign Ministry's Decline

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  • Budapest: The Foreign Ministry's Decline

    Nepszabadsag, Hungary
    Sept 7 2012


    The Foreign Ministry's Decline


    by Edit Inotai

    Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi has needed four days to make a
    statement on the Armenian-Hungarian scandal. All this basically does
    not come as surprise and clearly shows the Foreign Ministry's
    devaluation that has been going on for two years: By now, the ministry
    has basically disappeared within the Hungarian Government, and has
    become invisible and mute. We can spot its work only when it needs to
    "clean up something" or offer explanations after some blunders or
    scandals at best.

    This is the case, even though the Foreign Ministry survived remarkably
    well the change of government and the ensuing concentration of power:
    The Foreign Ministry remained intact - at least as far as its
    organizational structure was concerned - while other ministries were
    closed down or integrated. It kept its network of international
    representations; despite the fact that its budget was slashed, all
    conditions were given to enable it to function well and spectacularly,
    Peter Balazs, university professor, former foreign minister, and
    former EU commissioner, has said.

    Hungarian diplomacy regularly creates scandals.

    There were opportunities for success such as the rotating EU
    presidency which the Foreign Ministry ran well on a professional
    level, but foreign countries were loud with Hungarian domestic
    political scandals. Now, two years later, we have reached a point when
    the only "achievement" that Hungarian foreign policy can show is
    isolation and a loss of face, which has recently been "crowned" by the
    Azerbaijani scandal as well.

    In the government organization, the Foreign Ministry has lost its
    influence and no longer has an independent voice. The fact that peer
    pressure is widespread here, too, is only one of the reasons for this;
    by the way, peer pressure permeates the whole of Hungarian society.
    Diplomats have good antennae, perceive expectations, and are also
    vulnerable to the government in an existential sense. It is almost
    natural that "they adjust themselves." To understand their situation,
    it is enough to recall that State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth proudly said
    on Hir TV that they had managed to replace 90 per cent of the
    ambassador over the course of two years.

    In Balazs opinion, the Foreign Ministry had lost face mainly because
    of political reasons: distrust and the concentration of power. The
    government only has eight ministers; the last time when a government
    had so few ministers was in 1848. It seems that this is not enough,
    either; now a "minigovernment" is apparently being formed within the
    government around the prime minister's cabinet. At least this is
    suggested by Peter Szijjarto's appointment as state secretary for
    foreign policy and foreign trade. "It is perfectly natural that a
    prime minister also deals with foreign policy. Usually, it is rather
    odd that a prime minister shrinks from such duties such as Spain's
    Zapatero who does not speak foreign languages and felt out of place in
    the international arena because of this," Balazs said.

    Three politicians represent a country abroad most frequently: the
    president, the prime minister, and the foreign minister. But there
    should be good harmony and appropriate division of labour between
    them. For example, in Germany (where Balazs served as ambassador),
    Chancellor Helmut Kohl "ran" Russian and EU affairs, Foreign Minister
    Klaus Kinkel dealt with the Balkans and Visegrad countries [the Czech
    Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia], and Defence Minister Volker
    Ruha was in charge of crisis zones. There was similar division of
    labour under the Bajnai government, too: The prime minister mainly
    fostered US and Russian relations; as foreign minister, Balazs
    primarily focused on the EU, and Laszlo Solyom [president] decided to
    deal with neighbourhood policy. But cooperation was not smooth in the
    latter area, Balazs admitted.

    It is not completely unusual, either that there is a foreign and
    security policy adviser to the prime minister. His role is immensely
    important in the United States; in other places, it is rather a gray
    eminence who plays this role. He prepares the prime minister's
    international visits in cooperation with the Foreign Ministry, but he
    is in the limelight very rarely.

    There is a completely different situation in the current Hungarian
    Government. For example, Szijjarto has gained considerable power by
    being appointed as chairman of eight mixed committees. There was a
    fight throughout the summer when the Institute of International
    Affairs, a Foreign Ministry support organization, tried to secure
    positions for "its own experts." According to this daily's
    information, this attempt finally failed because of Martonyi's
    opposition. It is enough to say this much about "good cooperation"
    between the Foreign Ministry and the state secretary. It was also a
    strange development that Szijjarto spoke first in the extradition
    matter of the Azerbaijani axe killer; moreover, he did so on behalf of
    the Foreign Ministry; only after this did the Foreign Ministry
    hurriedly issue Zsolt Nemeth's statement.

    We cannot see any clear division of labour between the Hungarian prime
    minister and the foreign minister, either. The only thing that we can
    spot is that Martonyi sometimes tries to correct statements when Orban
    "tells the EU some home truths." When the prime minister compared the
    EU to a hellhole, Martonyi tried to stress that this community was
    very important to us.

    "There used to be diplomats who 'winked at the outside world' even
    under Slovak Prime Minister Vladimir Meciar; we can also see this
    duality in the Hungarian diplomacy these days. But everybody knows
    after all that the prime minister makes decisions and that it is his
    opinion that matters," Balazs recalled.

    It is common in Hungarian diplomacy that ambassadors are replaced
    after a change of government.

    Martonyi announced as early as June of 2010 that they would recall 15
    ambassadors and would end the assignment of some of them, especially
    because they had not trusted them. Zsolt Nemeth went further than this
    a month later and said that they had planned to replace the chiefs of
    30 international representations. Barely two months later, they
    appointed eight individuals and the National Assembly's Committee on
    Foreign Affairs heard another six candidates in December; they
    basically reached the figures indicated by Martonyi.

    By now, Nemeth's prediction has probably also come true because they
    have continued personnel changes, even if more slowly. There is a new
    man in Washington, London, Paris, Berlin, and Vienna; moreover, a
    different ambassador represents Hungary in the UN and the EU, too.

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