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Mr Orbán said in Hungary it seems perfectly natural that if a war becomes ever bloodier and ever more brutal and the number of victims on each side is well above a hundred thousand, that would force people to come to a halt and would induce even those who had previously supported the war from outside to move towards peace. However, this is not the case now; the number of countries and leaders standing for peace – rather than war – has not increased at all; “the war is becoming ever more brutal in vain, the war is becoming ever bloodier in vain, the number of European leaders arguing for a ceasefire and peace is not increasing,” the Prime Minister stated.
He said the European people have started in the direction of peace, but this change has not yet reached their leaders. As a result, for the time being, the majority of Europe continue to represent a pro-war position, and “are placing ever more brutal equipment at the disposal of the Ukrainians.”
He pointed out that “we are close to” a stage where the question of the Member States of the European Union sending peacekeeping troops of some kind to Ukraine may become a generally accepted issue in conversations among European leaders; “we are close to this line previously thought to be a red line not to be crossed.”
Mr Orbán said “as the war is in our immediate neighbourhood,” this conflict is a source of concern and a threat for the Hungarian people, “our security is in danger.”
As decisions are being adopted about the deployment of ever further weapons of destruction with ever greater destructive capacity, and the West is placing ever more sophisticated equipment at the disposal of the Ukrainians, he is convinced that the threat of a world war is “not a mere exaggeration,” said the Prime Minister, adding that when European and American leaders say that if things continue like this, we may well find ourselves in World War III, this may at first sound like an exaggeration that is hard to believe, but “this is a realistic threat at this point in time.”
The Prime Minister said everyone feels that this conflict could escalate into a world war and could even reach them. The Western European position supporting the war is based on moral considerations, “people in the West claim that we need this war and must support Ukraine because this is the right thing to do,” he explained.
He stressed that Hungary, however, takes the view that on moral grounds we must take a stance for peace, and the majority of the world shares the Hungarian position. Hungary belongs to the global majority; while in Europe its opinion is in a minority, in the world it belongs to the majority, he stated.
Mr Orbán also said the exertion of direct and indirect pressure and blackmail are daily occurrences, “they want to force us into this war.” At the same time, this is an issue of such gravity on which the national parliament cannot be avoided. The question of “whether Hungary should take part in the war, and if so, in what form, or should stay out” can only be decided unquestionably by a single entity, and that is none other than the Hungarian Parliament, he pointed out.
He stressed: this is why it is of significance that on Friday Parliament will adopt a resolution in which it perseveres with its position for peace and demands a ceasefire. The Hungarian position is not about the kind of peace treaty that should be concluded at the end of the talks; “our position is that there should be a ceasefire,” he laid down.
He said we should reach the point of a ceasefire, and then there would be a chance to work out the framework for the ensuing peace talks.
The Prime Minister also highlighted that the Left continued to remain pro-war.
He said the debate in Parliament on the pro-peace proposal would have been a good opportunity for the Left to surrender its pro-war position in the interest of national unity in the wake of a meaningful debate, and to join the peace camp represented by the government parties. “They could have done that without a loss of face,” he added.
We offered the Left the opportunity to move from its pro-war position to a pro-peace position, to switch to the side of the national interest,
the Prime Minister said, adding that he saw no signs of that happening.
He observed that “we will see which way they will vote.”
He also said “in the first moment, there were a few countries, including the Americans, who knew precisely what they were doing,” and bravely and proudly engaged in this war, based on an assessment of their own interests. But there were others who merely drifted into this conflict. Today, there are a number of countries “which didn’t want to be where they are now,” he said.
We expect two things from the European Union: the first one is enduring peace, he said, stressing that the EU must serve peace. However, the EU has become a pro-war system of institutions. The other thing we expect from the EU is to preserve the attained level of welfare. Compared with this, the war and the sanctions are destroying the European economy, Mr Orbán pointed out.
He highlighted that what is happening today is that not only have some countries drifted into the war against their will, but people are questioning the very meaning of the existence of the European Union because it has surrendered the two goals which it is meant to serve.
We will hear ever more voices from the Member States about emotional, moral and financial fatigue concerning the pro-war position because everyone appreciates that if the common trust vested in Europe weakens further, that could have far-reaching consequences, regardless of the war, he underlined.
The Prime Minister observed that underestimating the adaptability of a country was a fatal mistake; the Russians are adapting to the situation created by the European sanctions.
He recalled that the goal of the Hungarian government was to reduce inflation to a single digit by the end of the year. Traders and supermarket chains have now begun to compete with each other, offering ever lower prices on a variety of products, he added.
He said in the case of food products, with the fall in inflation, they will gradually phase out the existing price caps.
Mr Orbán argued that price caps were useful and helped to reduce inflation. At the same time, as they represent an artificial intervention in the normal processes of trade, they also have side effects. Therefore, it is best to remove price caps from the system and to return to the normal economic situation, he said, adding however that as long as inflation remains high, they cannot do so.
The Prime Minister said they had managed to defend the system for the protection of household energy expenses; up to the average consumption, people continue to have access to energy at protected prices. At the same time, in the case of food products, with the fall of inflation, they will remove price caps, similar to bank loans “where we are also operating all sorts of protective mechanisms which only cause problems in a normal situation,” he said.
Mr Orbán stressed that once inflation fell below a certain level, within an appropriate schedule the government would be required to adopt decisions on the removal of the measures that had been introduced due to high inflation.
