Commenting on Brexit, the former prime minister warned against the danger of “conflating politics with history”, saying that politicians who do this may end up winning elections but at the cost of “losing the country”.

“This is the big lesson to be learned from Brexit,” he said. It is important to be able to distinguish party political, election and national interests. Within a single day, Britain found itself on the verge of falling apart, simply because Prime Minister David Cameron wanted to increase his popularity by 2-3%, Gyurcsány said, adding that Orbán would now have to decide whether he wants to remain a party politician or give himself a chance to become a responsible statesman for Hungary.

Gyurcsány called on Orbán to withdraw Hungary’s planned referendum on migrant quotas. Drawing a parallel between the outcome of the British vote and Hungary’s migrant quota referendum, Gyurcsány warned that “political posturing” would lead to Hungary getting kicked out of the EU.

“If the Hungarian prime minister keeps saying that the EU is a bad place then it’s pointless for him to publish an ad in a British paper,” he said, referring to Orbán’s advertisement campaigning for the remain vote published in the Daily Mail earlier this week.

He said those who envision a free, prosperous world, have to make it especially clear right now that they are pro-European, adding that Hungarians, too, can be “good Europeans”. Instead of creating tension, “we need to be pushing for peace,” he said.

Republished with permission of Hungary Matters, MTI’s daily newsletter.