Mr Orbán stated: If there is a patriotic government, it will remain in place; if there is a non-patriotic, pro-Brussels government, it will be phased out.
He added that they would phase out not just the cap on household energy bills introduced due to the extreme cold, but the system of the reduction of household energy bills as a whole. There is a debate under way in Brussels about whether Member States should be banned from buying Russian oil and gas. Cheaper Russian energy is the very basis of the reduction of household energy bills; if there is no cheaper Russian energy, there is no reduction of household energy bills, he stressed.
If someone says that their goal is – as the energy policy experts of Tisza say – to detach ourselves from Russian gas and oil, by saying so they also say that it is over for the reduction of household energy bills. The whole system would be turned upside down, and then a period of adaption would start for families which would be about “how on earth they will be able to pay their twice to three times higher energy bills from their incomes which will evidently not be able to increase at the same rate,” the Prime Minister said, observing that there is a serious threat knocking at people’s doors.
Regarding the January cap on household energy bills, he said families in the hundreds of thousands would have found themselves bankrupt if there had been no reduction of household energy bills of any kind in Hungary. If they had not introduced the January household energy cap, the household energy bills of families would have increased by 30 per cent or more. He pointed out that in Central Europe the Poles and the Czechs paid two to three times more, while some as much as four times more for energy than the Hungarians, not even mentioning the Austrians and the Germans.
Today, it is something special in Hungary that there is a system provoking a great many debates on the part of international energy companies which is partially taking away the profits generated in the energy sector from traders and energy companies and is re-channelling them to the people by keeping prices low, he stated. He added: this is a unique system for which we must fight every year, and also the EU wants to phase it out as large international corporations have robust lobbying power in Brussels.
Mr Orbán justified the decision that the cap on household energy bills applies to everyone by saying that if they had not applied a general rule, a great many injustices would have emerged and they would have spent an inordinate amount of money on a system which the people felt was unfair. The government will assume 30 per cent of everyone’s January bills because this is closer to the solution where everyone has the feeling that their household energy bills have been reduced at a fair rate, he stated in summary.
He highlighted that upon the introduction of the Hungarian system for the reduction of household energy bills, DK [Democratic Coalition] had attacked them, but “they had in the meantime come out of this habit” because people in large numbers supported this measure, without which many people would not be able to make ends meet. However, “today in Hungary, there is a political force that is opposed to the reduction of household energy bills, that wants to phase out the reduction of household energy bills: it’s Tisza.”
Mr Orbán highlighted that in order to keep the reduction of household energy bills in place, he had to conduct three “grave and difficult negotiations”: he had to convince the pro-detachment US President to allow Hungary to continue to buy Russian energy carriers; he had to agree with the Russian President that they fulfil the terms of the supply agreements despite the damage caused to infrastructure by the Ukrainians; and then he had to agree with the Turkish President about guaranteeing the safety of the route bypassing Russia.
These three agreements constitute the safe foundations of the Hungarian system for the reduction of household energy bills, the Prime Minister said, highlighting that “we must quash” the EU decision on detachment from Russian energy by 2027. We have a year and a half to change “or to somehow evade” the EU decision, or else “households would find themselves ruined.”
Mr Orbán stressed: those who say that the current system and rate of the reduction of household energy bills can be maintained without Russian gas are not telling the truth.
The Prime Minister said Brussels is helping Ukraine by not allowing cheap Russian gas to be delivered to Hungary. He stressed at the same time that the European Union was not allowed to impose such a ban. “Meaning that Brussels is colluding with Kiev,” he observed.
He added that the Treaties of the European Union clearly laid down that it was a right of every Member State falling within national competence to decide what kind of energy they procured and from where. Brussels cannot interfere with this. If they want to interfere, then they can do so as part of the so-called system of sanctions, however, sanctions require unanimity. Now, Brussels invented the idea – also with reference to Kiev – that the regulation in question is not a sanction, but a trade policy measure which does not require unanimity and so the Hungarian and Slovak resistance can be avoided. However, it is perfectly clear that the content of this decision is a sanction, the Prime Minister laid down.
According to Mr Orbán, the purpose and meaning of the collusion between Kiev and Brussels is that both would like to see a government in Hungary which “complies with the wishes of both Kiev and Brussels,” a government that does not resist.
He said “the Ukrainians have a vested interest in taking our money away” as for the next few years they are “asking for, demanding” EUR 700 billion for military expenditures and EUR 800 billion for welfare which the EU could raise through borrowing or by increasing Member State contributions.
Today, Brussels and Kiev have not just a vested interest in hacking, frustrating Hungary’s energy policy, but have a much bigger common plan: to finally have a pro-Ukraine and pro-Brussels government in Hungary. This is what the April elections will be about, Mr Orbán pointed out.
Mr Orbán said at the latest Brussels Council meeting, he received a document which says, beyond issues of a monetary nature, that they want to admit Ukraine to the EU already in 2027. The reason being that they want to give Ukraine money already from the seven-year budget starting from 2028. This will take money away from the Central Europeans, he warned.
He also recalled that in Hungary there had been a Tisza referendum about whether the party’s supporters supported Ukraine’s membership, and more than half of them had supported it. Meaning that there is a difference in opinions in Hungary on this issue. However, if Ukraine were in the European Union today, then the EU would find itself at war with Russia, he stressed, highlighting that therefore Ukraine’s membership is inconceivable not only in an accelerated procedure, but in any form at all. This would additionally destroy the Hungarian economy, farmers most immediately, in the short term, because Ukrainian goods produced in large quantities and more cheaply due to the different governing regulations would appear on the European market. We are the closest to Ukraine, and so we Central Europeans are suffering the consequences of this the most, he indicated.
Mr Orbán stressed that Ukraine’s membership meant war and that the Europeans’ money was going to Ukraine. This is the name of the battle currently under way in Brussels, and we must win this battle. He added that this was a difficult, but winnable match. Naturally, we must first win the match here at home in April, and then in Brussels.
Mr Orbán pointed out that the Ukrainians were unable to defend Europe from the Russians. The Ukrainians are weakening, rather than strengthening Europe, and are dragging us into a war. The money that they want to give Ukraine should be used for developing the armies and equipment of European countries. He added that our line of defence against Russia lay not at the Ukrainian-Russian border, but where the border of NATO ended. We must keep Ukraine in an interim state, if possible, not with war, but with agreements, he indicated.
In his view, Europe will be safe if it has sufficient military strength to defend itself against any attack. Today, this is not the case, and so it must be developed. On the other hand, an agreement must be concluded with the Russians about Ukraine which constitutes a kind of buffer zone for us. Meaning an area where evidently Russian soldiers cannot be stationed. However, this is an issue for the ongoing negotiations which are taking place with varying intensity and will – it is to be hoped – continue during the period ahead, he stated.
Regarding the fact that financing Ukraine would cost Hungary HUF 5,652.9 billion which amounts to HUF 1.4 million per household, Mr Orbán said these are always underestimated numbers because the situation is that they ask for a certain amount of money, and then it transpires that it is never enough. “If you once open the gate, you’ll never be able to close it again,” the Prime Minister added.
According to the Prime Minister, one option is that Hungary should contribute more to the EU which Brussels is demanding also at present, telling us to do away with the reduction of household energy bills, to raise taxes, to scrap the thirteenth monthly pension and to send the money to Brussels. They have an idea about how to transform the Hungarian economy in order to raise more money from Hungary for Brussels, “it is called convergence,” the Prime Minister stressed.
He pointed out that Tisza’s economic programme – “which they deny, but we know it exists, it has authors, and if I’m not mistaken, there are now also witnesses” – bears the very same name. So, Tisza’s economic programme is a convergence programme which satisfies the expectations coming from Brussels, and these expectations keep coming to Hungary so that Brussels should then have more money to finance the war in Ukraine, Mr Orbán stated.
The other option is that Brussels takes out a loan – most recently 90 billion – from the money markets, “from bankers” and then lends that money to Kiev, the Prime Minister indicated, observing that “every child knows that Kiev won’t be able to repay a penny in the next hundred years,” and so when these loans mature, we will repay them to bankers, meaning our children and grandchildren.
The EU is partly squeezing money out of the Member States and is partly destroying the future of our children and grandchildren, Mr Orbán stated in summary, adding that this is why Hungary, the Czechs and the Slovaks refused to join this loan of EU 90 billion.
We already had Brussels governments in Hungary; we had the Gyurcsány Government and the Bajnai Government. At the time, they did not consult with the people, “they took their money and that was that,” he said.
The patriotic government does not accept instructions from Brussels; it filters them, transforms them, evades them in a way that favours Hungary, he stated. Mr Orbán recalled that this had not always been so, except in the past 15 years we had got used to having a patriotic government in Hungary and being protected from “the Brussels insanity” and excessive requirements. However, if “there is a Brussels government,” there is no such protective shield, he pointed out.
Regarding the special allowance for members of the armed forces to be paid on Friday, he said the government’s plan was to pay a special allowance for members of the armed forced minimum every four years, but if possible, every three years.
Those who undertake to serve their country by risking their own lives or if needs be, by even sacrificing their own lives such as members of the military deserve the extra appreciation, the Prime Minister said.
Mr Orbán stressed that those eligible for this allowance had recently done a very good job; Hungary is one of Europe’s safest countries.
“The fact that there are no jokes about police officers always indicates something, it means that the reputation of this line of work is increasing,” the Prime Minister observed on Kossuth Radio.
