"Settle Serbia with Hungarians? There's not enough at home"

"Settle Serbia with Hungarians? There's not enough at home"

The Hungarian prime minister said he was speaking jokingly, and added that one of the topics of the joint session of the governments of Hungary and Serbia held in Subotica on Monday was demographics, which is "a good area to exchange experiences."

According to him, it is never good when many people leave a country and seek work abroad, and Hungary has had this problem until recently.

"It's important to strengthen self-confidence in the region. Hungary has suffered a lot, many have left," Orban said.

This trend has been reversed, he said, with family and housing support programs, and recently more people have been returning to Hungary than leaving.

"If Hungary can do it, why can't Serbia and other countries," said the Hungarian leader.

Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said that Serbia is richer for the fact that it has 23 registered ethnic minorities with National Councils, and that the position taken by the Trifunovic about the Hungarian national minority is not an official position of Serbia.

Brnabic told reporters in Subotica that the Hungarian minority contributes to the strength, culture, wealth in Serbia and that this all stands opposite to Trifunovic's position.

"That is not the official position of Serbia, that much is unquestionable, and this is completely contrary to the stance of the vast majority of ordinary citizens in Serbia," Brnabic said.

Trifunovic on Saturday accused the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vucic, of wanting "to settle Serbia with people of other ethnicities," and mentioned Hungarians.