The Hungarian PM presented the Turkish president with Aristocrat the Stallion, receiving a Türkiye-made electric car in return
Hungarian PM Viktor Orban (3rd L) presents Aristocrat the Stallion (C) to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (R) in Budapest, Hungary on December 18, 2023. © Getty Images / Anadolu / TUR Presidency / Murat Cetinmuhurdar
Türkiye’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visited Hungary on Monday, meeting the country’s prime minister, Viktor Orban. The two leaders exchanged means-of-transportation gifts following the meet-and-greet ceremony with military honors for Erdogan in Budapest’s historic Heroes’ Square.
Orban gifted Erdogan a horse, Aristocrat the Stallion. The horse is a Nonius, a local Hungarian dark-coated heavy-boned breed, widely used as a draft and utility horse by the Hungarian military in the past. “The gift from one equestrian nation to another,” Orban wrote on Facebook.
In turn, the Hungarian leader got a Togg electric SUV from Erdogan. Togg is the first manufacturer to locally produce electric cars in Türkiye, active since 2018. The manufacturer released its first – and, thus far, only – model, the Togg T10X, last fall.
“The best deal I’ve ever made! For one horse power, I got 435. Welcome to Hungary President Erdogan!” Orban said in a tongue-in-cheek post on X, formerly Twitter, sharing pictures of the gifts.
The best deal I’ve ever made! For one horse power, I got 435. Welcome to #Hungary President @RTErdogan ! 🇭🇺🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/RVmEgHROGn
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) December 18, 2023
Orban’s choice of present for the Turkish leader did not escape the online community, with some users suggesting there might be more to it, given his poor account with horses.
In 2003, shortly after assuming the role of Türkiye’s prime minister for the first time, Erdogan experienced a well-known mishap while riding a horse named Cihan during the inauguration ceremony of a new park in Istanbul. Shortly after mounting the animal, the politician was thrown off the horse and trampled.
Following this event, Erdogan refrained from participating in public equestrian activities for over a decade. It wasn’t until 2017 that he mounted a horse again, marking his second appearance on horseback.
