Hungarian Prime Minister and Chairman of Fidesz party Viktor Orban | Attila Kisbenedek/AFP via Getty Images Hungary and Slovenia in diplomatic row over censorship request Budapest called for action after Slovenian magazine’s front cover caused outrage.

Slovenia rejected a Hungarian government request to censor journalists after a Slovenian publication ran a front cover showing a caricature of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán doing a Nazi salute.

A spokesperson for Slovenia's Permanent Representation to the European Union confirmed that the country's foreign ministry received a note from the Hungarian ambassador regarding the cover.

The Slovenian ministry replied to the Hungarians by saying that "[we] strictly respect the freedom of speech and freedom of the press and would never interfere in any of the media's editorial policy," the spokesperson said.

Mladina, a political magazine, has been covering what it describes as the close involvement of Orbán's ruling Fidesz party in Slovenian politics, including moves by individuals connected to Fidesz to invest in media outlets affiliated with its political ally, the opposition Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS).

Following Fidesz's suspension from the European People's Party last month, Mladina ran a cover story portraying a cartoon figure of Orbán doing a Nazi salute. In the illustration, Orbán is surrounded by the leader of the SDS, Janez Janša, as well as two other SDS politicians: MEP Milan Zver and national lawmaker Branko Grims.

The cover sparked uproar among Hungarian government officials.

"To the intellectuals in the editorial offices at Mladina, which has a long history of sympathy for the multiculti agenda and deep antipathy for the Church, anyone who voices a staunch opposition to immigration and a desire to protect our Christian culture must be a Nazi," wrote Hungarian State Secretary for International Communications Zoltán Kovács.

According to Mladina, the note delivered to Slovenia's foreign ministry said that "the Embassy strongly believes that the cover of March 22, 2019 edition of the Mladina weekly exceeds the principles of the freedom of press as well as that of the freedom of expression ... and requests the assistance of the esteemed Ministry to prevent similar incidents to happen in the future.”

Neither the Hungarian foreign ministry nor the SDS responded to requests for comment.

Asked why he chose to run the cover, Mladina editor-in-chief Grega Repovž told POLITICO that Orbán "talks like [a] fascist, he behaves like [a] fascist, he is using anti-Semitic rhetoric."

"Hungary is a country which does not hide that it tries to encroach upon the autonomy of the Slovenian state with capital and all other ways," he added.