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He said we may be laughing at it all now, but it has been positively difficult to survive the past 15 years, “on the one hand, we had pressure on us from the United States, and on the other, Brussels, too, has kept us under pressure. […] At least now, we don’t have the Americans trampling on our chest anymore, we must confine our efforts to putting an end to the pressure from Brussels.”
He stressed that the western liberal elite had used the money of American taxpayers to promote its ideology in the world. In Hungary alone, they sponsored more than 60 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and funded media “which was a conspiracy against our sovereignty and independence.” He added that Brussels was doing the same which was even more shocking, given that we ourselves contributed to the EU budget, and they supported our enemies from that money.
“This is the global liberal deep state, and now we see how it worked,” he stressed. He said the US Democrats wanted to replace governments which insisted on preserving their sovereignty and stood up for themselves. At the same time, the leaders of the Western European Left are genuinely convinced that if they let immigrants belonging to the Muslim faith in the majority into traditionally Christian societies, the result of this process of integration will be a better and happier society.
He took the view that it was driven by this conviction that George Soros urged the letting in of a million immigrants a year into Europe. The Hungarian position has always been that the decision on this issue must remain within national competence, and Hungary has never wanted to lecture anyone about how to build a better society, he pointed out.
It is a key development that Donald Trump has changed political thinking in the West, including on the issues of migration and the Green Deal as regarding the latter everyone now says that economic competitiveness comes first, and green issues can only come second after competitiveness, he pointed out.
Earlier, the message was that Christianity is something medieval, while today it is acknowledged that religious communities must be respected; earlier, the established view in the West regarding families was that the institution of the family had become dated and people should live together in different configurations, but now this has changed, too; today, everyone openly says regarding the mad gender propaganda that it is not right, while in the context of the war in Ukraine, not so long ago, those who wanted peace were bad and those who wanted war were good, but today the reverse is true, he listed.
The Prime Minister said the left-wing liberal community looked upon its own civilisation as something evil. Rather than wanting to make it stronger, they wanted to improve it by destroying it which is a truly communist idea, he said. He observed that this community did not love its nation, at times, they were even ashamed of belonging to a nation, and regarded anyone who was proud of their nation and believed that they had to work for the nation as Nazi and far-right. In their view, “I’m a Fascist, a medieval, feudal, Christian radical” which is absurd, Mr Orbán said, adding that the elite is often not prepared to accept the clear will of the electorate. Today, the majority rejects mass migration, but the elite is finding it difficult to change its position, and this is putting pressure on democracy.
Regarding the economy, he highlighted that thirty years ago the European Union had been the world’s largest economy, while today it was only in third place. There is not a single European among the world’s five largest economies. The success of the EU has always been closely linked to the success of the German economy, and as they are struggling now, so are we, he said. The reason for this is that the German economy and the European economy had a well-functioning structural model which was based on a combination of cheap Russian energy and advanced European technologies, and this resulted in competitiveness. Due to the war in Ukraine, we have isolated ourselves from cheap energy and we have no new strategy about how to become competitive again, there are no ideas, there are no visions, he explained.
The new US leadership is thinking in terms of the triangle of Europe, China and the United States, he said, adding that it would be important for Europe to stop sitting idly and to start coming up with ideas and proposals about how to change the present imbalance in trade. If we fail to do so, we will be compelled to deal with tariffs, he observed.
According to Mr Orbán, it is a problem that the bureaucrats sitting in the European Commission have taken control away from European prime ministers. Hungary will seek to conclude a good deal with Washington for itself, regardless of whether the European Union exists or not. Unless the EU makes some drastic decisions within 3 to 4 years, due to high energy prices businesses will not be able to remain competitive, capital will withdraw from the region and the community will fall apart, he warned.
In the context of the fight against climate change, Mr Orbán highlighted that it was not possible to achieve results purely on the basis of an ideology, going against economic interests. The Green Deal is effectively the EU’s suicide attempt. The European institutions are unable to introduce reforms, and genuine leadership can only come into being in the EU if the French and German governments firmly take control of the situation, he said.
Mr Orbán dismissed claims that are often made in the US press as well that he was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s puppet, but said if he were to take them seriously, he would say in response that rather than pro-Putin, he was pro-Hungarian.
“First of all, my duty is to serve my nation. Secondly, we have experience with the Russians, it wasn’t a pleasant period,” he said. Hungary was always compelled to struggle among three major power centres: Berlin, Istanbul and Moscow. Each one of them occupied Hungary at least once, the Russians three times. In the place where Hungary is these are the options to choose from, he added.
“When I returned to government in 2010, I agreed with President Putin to leave what happened between the two countries in the past to historians, and to develop reasonable cooperation and economic relations from then on. As good relations as possible. And that’s how it was, it works, and the Russians kept their word. Whatever Putin promised he delivered. And I did the same. So, my approach to the Russians is not as negative, as destructive as that of many western leaders today,” the Prime Minister stated.
He observed that regarding the Russo-Ukrainian war, he had always believed that it was not about Ukraine, but about the enlargement of NATO. The war broke out because Russia occupied a part of Ukraine in order to prevent the country’s NATO accession, he said. “Also back then, I told my colleagues that we must isolate this conflict as much and as swiftly as possible, or else this conflict will spread, will consume ever more money and will claim ever more victims,” he said.
When two Slavic peoples are at war with one another, that is a serious affair because they are both militant. The war must be stopped because the number of casualties will only rise. However, the western strategy is that the killing should last as long as it takes, he said. He observed that “on this issue, I remained alone, the only one who said that the European Union mustn’t become drawn into this war.”
Next, the peace camp was joined by Slovakia and the Vatican, and most recently by US President Donald Trump, and from here on this is a new chapter, he pointed out. Donald Trump follows the exact same logic that Hungary has proposed in the past three years, Mr Orbán stated, adding that if President Trump fails to find a solution to ending the war, Ukraine could easily become the Afghanistan of the European Union and this could even destroy the EU itself. It is a formidable task for President Trump to convince the Russians to stop the war in a way that allows them to believe that they won, he said.
“As regards Ukraine and its president, first of all, what they have done and are doing is heroic, there is no question about that, despite the mistakes they have made. Secondly, I believe that they misunderstood the West’s intentions. They thought that the West would always support them. Following from this, they don’t behave the way they should have in their position. If someone is in grave trouble, they need help, and if they ask for help, they should do so using the appropriate tone. But it was a mistake on their part to presume that the West would always support them,” Mr Orbán pointed out.
“I was sure that this support would come to an end, the war would come to an end sooner or later, and Ukraine would be left on its own. Whatever the losses are, now is the right time for peace. We cannot risk a World War III. I sympathise with the Ukrainians, but they’re in great trouble because of the way in which they approached this whole thing,” he said.
According to Mr Orbán, it is not enough for peace in itself that Washington has made it clear that Ukraine will not become a member of NATO because in his view, in Europe there is still a liberal opinion dictatorship. This has such a powerful impact on leaders that they now all think virtually the same way, meaning that cost what it may, Europe must support Ukraine and Ukraine must join NATO, he said. The time will come – once they realise that there are changes in the world – when they change their principles. Then they will start saying again what they said before, not caring about Washington’s position. “So, it’s difficult to achieve change with the incumbent European leadership,” but he took the view that a lasting solution will have to be found within six months because there are now strong leaders in place for this.
Mr Orbán also spoke about the fact that the Hungarian government continuously surveyed what European citizens thought about the war in Ukraine. According to these surveys, the Europeans are moving increasingly towards peace. But the government also has another ongoing survey about what the Europeans think about the future of their children, he added. Whether it will be better or worse than that of the respondents. In all Western European countries, the people’s answer was that it will be worse, the Prime Minister said. However, in all Central European countries people say it will be better. This is a significant difference between the two parts of the continent, he concluded.
Meaning that the countries – Central Europeans – which lived under occupation, in dictatorship, are more optimistic, and believe that they are able to create a better life for their children than their own. And this is so because the Central Europeans fought for freedom, for democracy. They believed that after 45 years of Soviet rule they would be able to build a country. At the same time, people in the West were born into this state of affairs, they inherited it and took it for granted. This means that there are huge differences within Europe, not only from country to country, but also based on historical experiences, he pointed out.
“I don’t know what the future of Western Europe will be like, but I’m totally convinced that a bright future awaits the people of Central Europe,” Mr Orbán stated.
