Hungary's prime minister has this week launched an attack on the Swedish government, with accusations and incorrect statements.
Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson responds on Wednesday evening with a long open letter published on X, addressed "Dear Viktor".
"I understand that it is election campaign in your country, and that you are this time really challenged for power. But we do not interfere in your election campaign and we do not want to be a part of it", Kristersson writes in the post, which has also been published in Hungarian and English.
"Must be defended"
The Prime Minister writes further that Sweden has always been Hungary's friends and describes, among other things, how Sweden helped tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews survive Hitler's mass murder and how Sweden showed solidarity when the Soviet Union in 1956 brutally suppressed the Hungarian democracy and freedom struggle.
"Hungary finally regained freedom, but freedom must also be defended. That's why we question when you go and have coffee with the leader of the same country that crushed your countrymen's freedom struggle in 1956, and which today attacks your neighboring country Ukraine", Kristersson writes.
Orbán published on Wednesday morning a picture that is supposed to depict Sweden and Hungary with figures for each country on explosions, shootings, arrested human smugglers and illegal migrants. The picture for Hungary is in color with a family with children walking in the forest. The Swedish picture is instead in black and white with a person in a hood surrounded by a crowd and smoke in a city environment.
"Chaos"
"This chaos must not be the future of Europe, our people deserve better", Orbán concludes the post and refers to the Swedish figures. To the post, he has added several links that are supposed to show the sources.
In the post, Kristersson is quoted correctly from when he said in January this year: "that we (Sweden) do not have control over the wave of violence is quite obvious".
"Lies"
Orbán falsely claimed in a post on X on Monday that 284 girls in Sweden were arrested suspected of as many murders. In a video he published, clips from, among other things, Spain and France were used, according to an investigation from SVT.
"Hair-raising lies", Ulf Kristersson replied.
Last year, a total of 92 cases of deadly violence were recorded in Sweden, according to Brå. Eight girls aged 15 to 17 were suspected of murder or manslaughter, SVT reports.
In Orbán's post from Monday, he believed that the Swedish government "lectures" Hungary on the rule of law principles.
