Governor of Burgenland writes open letter to Orbán, objecting to comments about Austrian ambulances made by Hungarian State Secretary for Health

Following the disparaging remarks about the quality of the Austrian ambulances made by Péter Takács, Hungary's State Secretary for Health in August, Hans Peter Doskozil, the governor of Austria's Burgenland region wrote an open letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. The governor wrote that Takács's statements about Burgenland's ambulance services were untrue and humiliating, according to the Kronen Zeitung.

Péter Takács was speaking on the Harcosok Órája (Hour of Warriors) program when he said that Burgenland's ambulances do not have GPS or online dispatch systems, and that they use magnetic boards to track the location of each ambulance. This came up when he was talking about the cooperation between the paramedic services of Burgenland and Hungary, and according to him, the Austrian paramedics were amazed at how well equipped the Hungarian vehicles were when they saw them. He then went on to say:

"As a first step, some EU funds need to be used so the quality of the Burgenland ambulances can be brought up to the level of the Hungarian ones so we can synchronise our ambulance systems."

The Austrian politician found this particularly offensive, calling the comment unacceptable and provocative. According to Doskozil, the state secretary's words are factually false and unbecoming of the partnership that exists between the two countries. "The cooperation between the two countries requires mutual respect, not false statements," he said.

For this reason, Doskozil is asking Prime Minister Orbán for a public correction and has requested that similar statements be avoided in the future. At the same time, however, he also indicated that he is open to dialogue in the interest of working together.