Dutch far right politician Geert Wilders awarded Hungarian state honour

As part of the events celebrating Hungary’s Statehood Day, August 20th, several state honors were awarded. The full list of honorees was published in Hungary's Official Journal (Magyar Közlöny) late Tuesday evening. Some of the names on the list have not received publicity, and although this is far from an exhaustive list, there are definitely a few interesting ones to consider.

The Commander’s Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary was awarded to Dutch far-right politician Geert Wilders, who has a good relationship with the Hungarian government. Wilders has called Hungary his second home before, as his wife is Hungarian, and he is also good friends with pop singer Bunyós Pityu. He received the state honour for “consistently standing up for Hungary, and in recognition of his work to stop the wave of illegal immigration". It is an interesting coincidence that former German chancellor Angela Merkel also received an award on Tuesday. However, her award did not come from Hungary but from UNESCO, and she was not honoured for her anti-immigration stance, but for her efforts to welcome refugees in 2015.

The same state honour was awarded to German businessman Klaus Mangold, CEO of Mangold Consulting GmbH, “as a recognition of his outstanding achievements in strengthening and developing the economic relations between Germany and Hungary”. Mangold, who is known by his nickname “Mr Russia” in business circles is best known in Hungary for using his Russian connections to help broker the agreement to build the Paks II nuclear plant. He later lobbied for the Russians and for the Hungarian government in Brussels, and as recently as the end of 2021, he received a contract worth 8,2 billion forints (nearly 20 million euros) for consultancy services from the now-defunct Ministry of Innovation and Technology.