While we will have a war-free Christmas, the danger of war has not passed, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned in a special edition of the programme ‘Facts’ of TV2 on Monday evening.
In the interview, the Prime Minister said regardless of the fact that the European Union eventually refrained from using the frozen Russian assets, “the direction hasn’t changed” in Brussels.
Now, we will have a war-free Christmas, but the danger of war has not passed because the EU, with the exception of the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia, continues “to move towards the war, is heading that way,” he said, with reference to the fact that with the exception of these three countries, the other Member States decided that Ukraine may receive EUR 90 billion over a period of two years.
However, as “the EU has no money,” they decided to borrow from bankers, “knowing in the meantime that the money we’re lending to Ukraine will never be recovered,” he stated.
Mr Orbán pointed out that in the end, EU Member States would have to satisfy the claims of bankers, and as a guarantee must be supplied in conjunction with the debt, the question was who should provide that guarantee. It was at that point that the Slovaks, the Czechs and the Hungarians said they were not prepared to take part in this, he recalled.
“We don’t want to put a single taxpayer forint of our own taxpayers into this doubtful debt manoeuvre, […] we have stayed out of this, while the others are left in the lurch,” the Prime Minister said. The Brussels manoeuvre would have cost Hungarian families HUF 400 billion, meaning that this is how much the government managed to save for Hungarian families, Mr Orbán laid down.
At this point in time, Europe is closer to the war more than ever before because in the United States Donald Trump won the elections, and “he’s doing precisely what he said he was going to do, […], he will do everything he can in the interest of peace,” he pointed out. And as “the Europeans want war, while the Americans want peace, […] a conflict has come into being,” he said, adding that “the Europeans […], even despite Trump’s peace efforts, continue to arm, finance and support Ukraine, and in actual fact, they’re now also talking about peacekeeping troops to be sent there.”
Mr Orbán said the US-Russian talks which are ongoing also at present, even in light of Europe’s objections, may well succeed, and then with the involvement of the Ukrainians, a ceasefire could be achieved, but a long-term peace deal is likewise not out of the question.
In his view, had the Russian assets been taken away, the Member States of the European Union would have become “Russia’s open enemies.”
He said the 27 EU Member States combined have more assets in Russia than the Russian assets that were frozen in Europe.
If the Russians decide to confiscate the Western European assets, including Hungarian assets, in Russia, then the Europeans will lose more than by taking away the Russian assets in Europe, he laid down.
He added that Hungary had significant assets in Russia in the form of the assets of health care, veterinary health care, instrument technology and energy companies, and so it had an elementary interest in ensuring that these corporate assets be saved.
He said the big deception – that the war will not cost a penny – has been exposed in Europe, and during the period ahead, due to the financial risks involved, members of the public in Western European countries will voice their opinion ever louder, and this could swiftly tip over to an anti-war position.
Mr Orbán pointed out that the people could stop Western European leaders from “marching into a war.”
The Prime Minister said today, one of the sharpest dividing lines in European and Hungarian politics is that there are pro-peace and there are pro-war forces.
“In Europe, the Germans are, for instance, pro-war. The European People’s Party is led by Germans. The head of the European People’s Party, who is also the strongest leader of the European Parliament, is a German. The President of the Commission is a German. The German chancellor is the leader of the biggest state. They all belong to the same club, that’s the European People’s Party. That’s a pro-war party.”
He said the Patriots are on the other side, and all the parties of the Patriots want peace.
The Prime Minister said the European pro-war party with a majority announced that Europe must be ready by 2030 for waging a war against Russia.
“If that’s the case, and it is now, then in 2026 in Hungary we will have the last parliamentary elections before an expected war. This will be the last pre-war election,” he said, taking the view that ‘war or peace’ will be the main issue of this election.
Mr Orbán said in Hungary, pro-peace forces are in the majority, there is a pro-peace government in Hungary.
The Prime Minister listed the government programmes launched recently, including the fixed three per cent housing loan, the fixed three per cent loan facility available for small and medium-sized businesses, the doubling of the tax benefits available for families in relation to children in two phases, the introduction of the fourteenth monthly pension and the lifelong personal income tax exemption of mothers with two and three children.
Mr Orbán said these measures are especially important because “during a period when there are ongoing war preparations” the Hungarian government is the only government to introduce such measures, nothing of the kind is happening in Western Europe. The announced Brussels economic policy is about changing over to the phase of a war economy. Hungary is doing the opposite, and time will decide who made the right decision, he stated.
He added that “Hungary must not set out on this Brussels path” because then there will be no fourteenth monthly pension, in fact, not even a thirteenth monthly pension; there will be no family support system; there will be no first-home programme for young people; and neither will there be credit available with fixed three per cent interest for small and medium-sized businesses.
The Americans introduced sanctions against companies that buy Russian oil and gas, Mr Orbán recalled, adding that Hungary received exemption from these sanctions on the basis of his agreement concluded with the US President which, by his account, remains valid “as long as he’s president there and I’m prime minister here.” At the same time, they had to agree with the Russians that while Russian energy facilities are targeted by military strikes, we will nonetheless receive the quantities of gas and oil we want and we contracted for. We received a guarantee for that, the Prime Minister pointed out. Next, he had to go to Istanbul to come to an agreement with the Turkish president about the Turks forwarding the gas coming from Russia in a southerly direction, bypassing Ukraine, to Hungary via a pipeline system, the Prime Minister said in continuation.
“We will be able to guarantee Europe’s lowest household energy bills paid by the Hungarians in the coming years if this government stays in power,” he stated.
He also said they want Hungary to be great and to have reason for self-esteem and glory. We are a great nation commanding respect, and this should be evident to the whole world.
The Prime Minister said the goal is that meanwhile we should also have economic results; these are beneficial not only at the level of the economy, but also enrich Hungarian families. The Hungarians should be well-off, the Prime Minister stated in summary, underlining that this is what he endeavoured to achieve.
He pointed out that in order to achieve this, they had been required to break quite a few taboos, including introducing an entirely new system of taxation, placing families in the focus, sending the IMF packing and involving large multinational corporations more in the bearing of public burdens. There is as yet much work to be done to get to the point where they can say that the Hungarians are a nation comprised of well-off families.
He recalled that earlier during the day they had inaugurated a new motorway section, and indicated that they would build many hundreds of kilometres of motorways and express roads more, while enormous railway construction projects were also about to begin. They will introduce the tax exemption of families in multiple stages, the number of new housing contracts has reached 15,000, and they will raise this number to far above a hundred thousand, he listed.
He highlighted that despite the fact that Hungary was in an extremely difficult international environment, he did not want to surrender the dream that after losing the 20th century, Hungary should win the 21st century. Twenty-five years of the latter have already passed, there is no time to lose, he warned.
He wished Hungarian families peaceful holidays. He quoted from the Holy Scriptures ‘love your neighbour as yourself.’ We must love ourselves, too, but self-love is not self-adoration, he stressed, suggesting to the Hungarians that they learn and reinforce the notion in themselves that there are things that we have achieved and these must be appreciated.
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