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He said at the time of the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, Brussels leaders began by suggesting that they send helmets which were then followed by weapons and tanks, next came aircraft, and now they are saying – as they are losing “their war” – that sooner or later they will also have to send soldiers.
He pointed out that leaders in Brussels look upon the Russo-Ukrainian war as their own. However, this is not the Hungarian people’s war, Hungary will not intervene on either side.
The Prime Minister said “there is a war atmosphere in Brussels,” the first chapter of the Russo-Ukrainian war has come to a conclusion; by virtue of the fact that the idea of sending troops to Ukraine has emerged, a new chapter has begun.
In this new chapter, NATO is planning a Ukraine mission, not in order to send troops, but it started coordinating training and weapon supplies, and wants to collect funds from its Member States; in other words, it is slowly slipping into the war, he added.
He pointed out that NATO was a defence alliance; it was established – and Hungary joined – based on the premise that if any Member State is attacked, each member can rely on the assistance of the others. There is nothing about attacking anyone collectively or carrying out military operations outside the territory of NATO, he stressed.
In his view, the Hungarian position is nothing other than insisting on NATO’s original mission: this is a defence alliance.
He said “for a Hungarian, this is not a war that we ourselves are involved in.” “When I listen to leaders in Brussels, he said in continuation, they speak about this war as their own war, they’re involved in it.”
The Prime Minister said the Russo-Ukrainian war is taking place in the immediate neighbourhood of Hungary, it is a significant conflict, “poor Ukrainians are suffering terribly,” people are dying in the hundreds of thousands.
At the same time, he said this is a war between Russia and Ukraine, a war between two Slavic nations, it is not “our war.” It should be brought to a conclusion with a ceasefire and peace talks within the shortest possible time. Hungary wants to stay out of this war, and has managed to do so to date. The question is whether Hungary will be able to stay out of the second chapter. In his view, the country will be able to do so, he stressed.
As long as Hungary has a national government, Hungary will not intervene in the Russo-Ukrainian war on either side, he stated.
He also spoke about the fact that the EU is not a military organisation and therefore has no military capabilities. However, the Member States have armies. The Member States do not want to intervene in the war under a European umbrella, but do want to provide money for the war under a European umbrella, the Prime Minister explained.
According to Mr Orbán, we must pay attention to avoiding the development of a situation where European leaders send the money of the Member States – the money of the Hungarian people, above all – to Ukraine. He said he is making every effort to prevent the money Hungary is entitled to from ending up in Ukraine, rather than in Hungary.
In the context of the latest events in the Middle East, the Prime Minister said it is best for everyone if we succeed in deescalating the conflict.
He said both leaders and citizens in Europe correctly perceive that the world has become a dangerous place, and the Middle East is becoming “a war zone.” Everyone dreads a scenario where the Israeli war pursued against a terrorist organisation escalates into an inter-state war.
He also mentioned that there was discord, there were unsettled issues in the Balkans as well.
The situation requires extreme discipline and caution. Now more than ever, we truly need strategic calm, he said.
Mr Orbán agrees with those who say that each conflict must be handled differently. In the Middle East, every effort must be made to prevent the conflict from escalating into a war and from setting the whole Middle East aflame, he stated.
In the context of the Russo-Ukrainian war, the Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that in Europe there are pro-war governments in power. Hungary is on its own; the Vatican is the only other pro-peace state.
According to Mr Orbán, Hungary must persevere because he expects that cracks will start developing in the pro-war European thinking. At the end of the day, there are democracies in Europe, and it is becoming clear to ever more people that there is no solution to this conflict on the battlefield, he said.
Diplomacy must take back the leading role, we must achieve a ceasefire, must start peace talks, and should give Ukraine as little money as possible in a situation where Europe itself is struggling with severe economic difficulties, he stated.
Naturally, it is even more difficult for the Ukrainians, but the middle classes in Europe are suffering, economic competitiveness is deteriorating, and there is no money for the green transition or the Balkans enlargement, he listed. He observed that compared with the Chinese and the Americans, Europe is investing far less money in the economy.
The election campaign is a time for straight and open talk, he stressed. He is convinced that the European people will push their own governments towards peace; we must only persevere until then.
He added that this was the case with migration, too. Hungary was alone, but in the end, the people pushed their own governments into an anti-migration position. According to the Prime Minister, the people will now push their own – as yet pro-war – governments towards peace.
Mr Orbán also pointed out that in Western Europe freedom of speech was in poor shape. Liberal societies have developed in which the factors shaping public opinion – above all, the media, universities, think tanks, foundations, and of course, politicians – have become monochromatic; they all say more or less the same.
He mentioned as an example that if he opens two German newspapers – a left-wing one and a right-wine one – he will read exactly the same about the most important issues.
Today, there is “an opinion steamroller” in Western Europe, a situation which the Hungarians cannot even imagine, and that is combined with the phenomena of everyday oppression, Mr Orbán stated.
He said it is one thing that a campaign opening event is banned, but it is quite another that if a simple worker openly says at his workplace something about migration that does not coincide with the official position, he may not have a job the next day. This is not an exaggeration, he added.
You cannot post just anything on Facebook; it will have consequences. If your opinion is different from the designated central opinion, that will have consequences, he pointed out.
As regards their event in Brussels, it is not just that it was banned, the venue owners received threats. For instance, the wife of the catering company boss received a call, “they openly threatened them that if they’re prepared to give us food or coffee, that will have if not spectacular political consequences, but very severe negative consequences for them in their everyday lives,” he said, relating the story.
If someone in Hungary wants to form an opinion about any issue, they will have access to both conservative and liberal views, and there is nothing to stop them from openly stating their opinion. The worst thing that can happen is that others will disagree, but Hungary is not yet at the stage where people incur sanctions for stating their opinions. However, the West is already at that stage, Mr Orbán added.
Regarding migration, he said many claim that the Soros Plan does not exist, despite the fact that George Soros himself wrote down his six-point plan in September 2015.
He added that this states that every year we must let a million migrants into Europe; in order to finance this, the EU must take out a loan in the form of issuing bonds; while in the countries from which migrants are coming we should create safe passages to facilitate their journey to Western Europe.
The goal is clearly laid down: to destroy Europe with a million migrants brought in every year, to change its cultural foundations, to suppress Christianity, to vanquish traditional European values, and to create a mass offering the prospect of large profits in an economic sense, a mixed society in Europe, he listed.
Regarding the present situation in Europe, he said there are elegant legal debates under way, but in actual fact, the Soros Plan is being implemented: European leaders want to manage migration, rather than stop it.
By contrast, the government’s opinion is that no one can tell the Hungarians whom we should live together with, he pointed out.
Regarding the management of migration, he said the tightening of the rules is of no help, given that if a system is fundamentally flawed, “we tighten the rules in vain, it will lead nowhere.” The essence of migration is whether a migrant is allowed to stay in the territory of a country before the assessment of his or her application; that is the key to everything, he laid down.
He warned: even if an asylum request is rejected, the migrant in question will never go back home because repatriation programmes are only successful in a quarter or fifth of cases.
The key is whether a country has a legal system and the strength to enforce that migrants must await the assessment of their asylum requests outside the borders, he stated.
If a country fails to lay this down, it will not be able to stop migration, he stressed, adding that western countries do not want to lay this down.
He stressed that in the EP election campaign they would like to tell the people that while a great many details and a great many troubles are making life in Europe difficult, the war is the most important question.
“In fact, we have two options: either we are pro-peace, or we are pro-war,” he said, adding that both the Brussels bureaucrats and the Hungarian Left are pro-war.
„We are pro-peace; the European people are pro-peace. We need a pro-peace majority in Europe. This is what’s at stake in the elections,” he stated.
He took the view that the incumbent Brussels leadership had failed to deliver on all its important goals, including the implementation of the green transition, the improvement of European competitiveness, the management of migration, and standing for peace as the most important European value. Therefore, they do not deserve another chance.
He stressed that in the election campaign, we must fight, not speculate, “shoot, reload, shoot, reload.” “At times like this, rather than talking about clever things, we must draw our weapon and fight the opponent,” he said, indicating that this is why the government parties are holding a campaign opening event on Friday.
Regarding the demonstrations of European farmers, he pointed out that they were right. They are rebelling because today the EU is representing the interests of Ukrainian oligarchs and large American corporations, rather than the interests of European farmers.
He took the view that the dumping of Ukrainian grain is one of the undesirable consequences of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and as there are pro-war governments in power in Europe, they are not able to say no to this either. They want to help the Ukrainians with all available means at their disposal, but by doing so they are destroying their own farmers.
Hungary is able to protect its own markets, but has to date sold one half of its produce on European markets, most of it to Italy. However, due to the cheap Ukrainian grain, Hungarian farmers have limited access to these markets now, he explained.
He described the situation as extremely grave, stressing that it is threatening the very livelihoods of Hungarian farmers. He recalled that the government had adopted a five-point action plan to help farmers.
