Dániel Kacsoh: Hi, everyone! This is a very special edition of “Reaktor with Dániel Kacsoh” from the plane currently flying to Washington for the summit meeting between Viktor Orbán and Donald Trump. We were able to interview the Hungarian prime minister for a few questions. That’s coming up next, but before you watch, subscribe to our channel.
Prime Minister, Donald Trump has called you his friend. Is this also true for Hungary, and if so, what are the consequences?
It’s true. There’s a historic experiment underway in the Western world today. We started it, but we’re not the true launch vehicle; that role belongs to Donald Trump’s United States. This is a great, historic adventure and undertaking: Can the Western world, which has swung completely to the liberal left, and in many areas – such as international competitiveness – has failed as a result, be brought back to a world of traditional values and modern Christian governance? That’s the big question. We started this in 2010, and in 2016 Donald Trump tried it in the United States. So far I’ve made it through the electoral checkpoints, and that’s why I’ve been doing this for sixteen years. He didn’t make it through the first checkpoint, so for four years America was pushed back to the Left. But he didn’t give up, he came back, and now we’re continuing what we did before, during his first term. So, of course, Hungary shouldn’t overestimate its own importance – because our weight is what it is, our GDP is what it is, our army is what it is; but we shouldn’t underestimate ourselves either. And it’s not the first time in history that we’ve interpreted the international situation differently from most Western European countries and responded to the challenges of the age in our own unique way, differently from everyone else. We’ve been doing this since 2010. And suddenly we see that a country as large as the United States is embarking on the same path, creating a unique relationship between the United States and Hungary. That’s why we can say that today the American people and the Hungarian people are experimenting with the same thing, they want to save their future in the same way, they want to use the same solutions. It’s on a different scale, but they want to save their future, their families, their economy, and their international position in the same way as we do. And this creates a special kind of relationship.
Prime Minister, the Hungarian economy isn’t experiencing its best years, and some would call that an understatement. For an ordinary Hungarian citizen who doesn’t follow diplomatic events, and who may only learn about this meeting from headlines, how will their everyday life be affected by the agreement that’s expected to happen tomorrow in the White House?
It’s worth discussing the situation of the Hungarian economy independently of this American trip; because Hungarian economic history has never seen a situation when, while there’s a war blocking Hungarian and European economic growth, a country is still able to launch programmes that would be difficult to implement even in times of super-high economic growth. And Hungary, in an internationally blocked economic environment, is launching the largest programme in its history to enable people to own their first home. It is launching Europe’s largest tax reduction revolution, doubling the tax allowance for families with children, and at the same time introducing lifelong tax exemption for mothers with three children or with two children. And in the meantime there’s full employment. So it’s important to look at what macroeconomic figures the Hungarian economy is showing; but what’s more important is what the Hungarian economy is capable of today, regardless of the macroeconomic figures. And today it can undertake projects that are unprecedented and exceptionally positive for people. So I look at the Hungarian economy in a nuanced way. Now our current negotiations with the Americans will have two effects on the standard of living in Hungary. The first, positive, aspect of the negotiations is that we’ll establish a completely new quality in American–Hungarian economic relations, covering areas such as energy, the defence industry, scientific cooperation, and university cooperation. This will have many positive benefits. In fact, we’ll be negotiating American investments – which is no easy task, because nowadays the President wants to bring his investments back to America from abroad, and my goal is to bring as many American investments to Hungary as possible. This year we’ve already brought seven major American investments to Hungary, and I’d like to agree on a few more new investments. And there’s another package that has a profound impact on our daily lives, and that’s the price of energy. If I can’t reach an agreement with the American president on an exemption from the sanctions affecting Hungary and the whole world, then there will be big trouble for the Hungarian economy and Hungarian households, because the price of energy will skyrocket. If I can reach an agreement, then we can protect the reductions in household energy bills and continue our lives at the price level we’re paying for energy today. It’s only a slight exaggeration to say that this is a matter of life and death.
We’ll find out tomorrow. One quick question. Few leaders of the European Union or European Member States have yet gone to bilateral talks with the now no longer new – but ultimately new – American president. You’re among the first. Have you received any phone calls, say, from the European Commission or the leaders of other Member States, asking you to help them establish or strengthen their relations with the President of the United States?
I’m in a position whereby such conversations can take place among Central European countries, and there have been some. Western Europeans usually seek me out when there are new developments in matters of war and peace. For example, when the agreement was reached to hold a Russian–American summit in Hungary, it was logical to consult with Western Europeans as well, which I did.
