Presenting a high Hungarian state honour to Edmund Stoiber, Hungary’s president called the former Bavarian premier a ‘patriot and dedicated European’.

President János Áder presented former Bavarian Minister-President Edmund Stoiber Hungary’s Order of Merit Grand Cross in a ceremony in Sándor Palace in Budapest on Friday, calling Stoiber a “patriot and dedicated European”. Stoiber, he said, had made clear that Christian-conservative politics was a strong feature of Europe’s past that provided a common foundation for building the bloc’s common future.
Áder said Hungary appreciated Stoiber’s work in enhancing cooperation between Hungary and Bavaria. The president noted that thirty years ago, on November 10, 1989, Stoiber headed a Bavarian delegation to Hungary and met József Antall, the leader of the Hungarian Democratic Forum who later became the country’s first prime minister after the change in political system. They spoke about the common hope that the end of the German divide could mean ending European divisions, Áder noted.