The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Patriarch Porfirije, decorated Monday in Budapest Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban with the Saint Sava Order, the highest decoration awarded by the SPC.

The ceremony was attended by Backa Bishop Irinej and Bishop Lukijan of Budim at whose proposal Orban was decorated, said a SPC press release.

Patriarch Porfirije said his heart rejoices at the opportunity to address Orban and present him with the highest SPC decoration.

The Patriarch said that “a new system of values imposes itself on us, often aggressively, aimed at destroying every natural and civilizational order and the identity foundations and pillars of individuals and communities, so everything would become relative, fragile, and fluid.”

Porfirije said Orban advocates a Christian system of values “that created both the Hungarian and the Serbian people, values that created Europe as we knew it, the Europe we lived in until yesterday.”

The Patriarch said that, thanks to Orban’s and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic’s efforts, relations between Hungarians and Serbs are probably the best in the past few centuries.