Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Gergely Prőhle informed his German partners about the amendment of the Hungarian Fundamental Law in Berlin, on March 19, 2013.The Hungarian Deputy State Secretary arrived in the German capital at the invitation of the junior member of the German government coalition, the liberal FDP party.

Gergely Prőhle briefed the foreign affairs workgroup of the FDP parliamentary fraction about domestic policy developments in Hungary and also met with Peter Schoof, the Director in the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs responsible for Hungary and with Markus Löning, Federal Government Commissioner for Human Rights Policy. The apropos for the meetings was the visit the week before by President of the Republic János Áder to Berlin and the envisaged visit of German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle to Budapest in May, and also the fact that the Bundestag, the lower chamber of the German legislature, also discussed the issue of the constitutional amendment and numerous reports of a negative tone were published about our country.

Gergely Prőhle explained that with respect to the constitutional amendment, his partners were mainly interested in issues relating to the scope of authority of the Constitutional Court and the freedom of speech. Briefing the German party was important for the Hungarian Government to mitigate the effects of biased articles containing exaggerated statements and also to provide information about our national policy endeavours. Defending the Hungarian position in an efficient and successful way does not mean that everything is perfect in Hungary, however we would like these processes to be better understood. According to Gergely Prőhle, the misunderstandings were also the result of linguistic shortfalls, the fast pace of Hungarian legislature and among others the fact that there are two different political cultures in Hungary and Germany. Often, the politicians who criticise Hungary make accusations without full knowledge of the facts. Gergely Prőhle emphasised that Germany is one of the closest allies of Hungary and is the largest investor in the country, and accordingly it is important for its leading politicians to possess correct information.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs)