I shook hands with the US President on that the exemption from sanctions for Hungary is without a temporal limit, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán pointed out on Saturday on the flight back to Hungary – answering questions from members of the press who accompanied him to Washington – after his meeting with US President Donald Trump in the White House on Friday.
The Prime Minister said “I concluded an agreement with the President, he said that ‘we will exempt you from the US sanctions – which would have affected the TurkStream and Druzhba pipelines – without a temporal limit.’ Meaning that this is no more.”
Mr Orbán said “based on a conservative estimate, we saved the Hungarians from a petrol price of around 1,000 forints. Additionally, when the heating season begins, gas bills would be 2.5 to 3 times more expensive without this agreement – we have protected the Hungarians from trouble of this magnitude.”
“We didn’t bring this trouble upon ourselves, the war did. I keep saying that the war is blocking the European economy through high energy prices and the sanctions,” he laid down. He added: “Just imagine the Hungarian economy, had this been the energy price level, how could we have been competitive? This would have had unimaginable consequences for the future of jobs, factories, businesses.”
“We have rescued the Hungarians from grave trouble, but that’s how it is in our line of business, when lightning hits, you must find a lightning rod. This lightning rod worked yesterday,” he stated.
Assessing his talks with Donald Trump, the Prime Minister said talking to the US President, you must avoid all the technical traps which is no easy feat, thinking with a European mindset, meaning that rather than approaching the issue in hand starting from the details and moving towards the whole, you must start with the whole and then move towards the details. In the governance system of the United States, the president makes decisions in the context of the big picture and leaves the details to the ministers. If at a meeting with him concerning an important issue you are able to tell him summed up in a single sentence how important it is and why, he understands within seconds and tells you to what extent he is interested in the details, whether he wants to find out any more about it, Mr Orbán said.
Regarding the US President, he said if you are able to climb through the barbed wire obstacle course of the US presidential election struggles, and at that, not once, but twice, that is the ultimate guarantee in the American political system that a political leader without genuine abilities cannot enter into office. You can safely entrust the fate of America to a person who wins in these battles not once, but twice, he said, adding that even the first time around, there was no question that Donald Trump would prove to be a good president, and now this was absolutely certain. America has a good chance of Donald Trump providing the best presidency of its history, he laid down. He recalled that during his time in government, Mr Trump was able to overcome a number of obstacles, mentioning as an example that for four years “a deep state organisation” hindered all radical changes, they tried to kill him, accused him of conspiracy against the state and wanted to take all his assets away.
Mr Orbán believes that this is the reason why things are now happening tornado style; a change on a civilisational scale is taking place in the United States. They are redirecting a world that has turned in a progressive, liberal, globalist, internationalist direction to the course of a patriotic, conservative and Christian society that seeks to operate on the basis of traditional values. This is unprecedented on such a scale and will also decide the future of the West for quite a few decades, he pointed out. “Because in addition to having discussed Hungarian-US affairs now, we know that there is a struggle of a higher order above our level, a struggle for the soul of the West,” he added.
According to the Hungarian Prime Minister, what is at stake in Donald Trump’s administration is whether he will be able to implement a course of modern Christian governance, rescuing everything that is good from the past, in contrast to things that are bad in his opinion; he mentioned the LGBTQ ideology and migration as negative examples.
“And if he can do this America, then we, too, can do it in Europe,” Mr Orbán stressed, adding that this was another dimension of the talks which embraced the context of the specific issues.
In answer to a question, Mr Orbán said in today’s western world, there is a civilisational struggle under way about what the West itself should be like. He recalled that there had been an ongoing battle for 150 years between the Right building programmes on Christian, national-western foundations and those who had chosen to abandon these traditions and to build a system of their own on the left, on the basis of progressive ideas. However, the liberal, globalist side has moved towards extremes to such an extent that they started identifying absurd plans for building society – LGBTQ, migration, the concept of open borders – which have thrown western civilisation into a deadly danger. We must rectify this now, he stated.
“My plan is now,” he said, “to make Hungary understand that this struggle is under way and its very existence is on the line. If a small country wakes up too late, then it’s all over,” he said. “In order for a small country to be able to adapt to such a change, it must understand in good time the profoundest underlying issues of the civilisational struggle. This is what I’m working on, to make every Hungarian appreciate this,” he stressed.
He said we must find answers to the challenges mounting before us such as migration, security, family, education – what we teach our children – adaptation to modern technologies, patriotism, the issue of sovereignty. “I have a plan for Hungary to take part in this whole big cavalcade in such a way that we fully understand our interests and the situation, and take the right steps before everyone else. I’ve been doing this since 2010. This is not an exercise in intellectual amusement, but an existential issue for the Hungarians.”
He also told members of the press that during his talks he had concluded an agreement with the US President about a protective financial shield: should Hungary’s financial system sustain any external attack, including speculative or political attacks, they have given their word to protect Hungary’s financial stability.
In answer to a question, the Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that based on the history of his relationship with Donald Trump, the Hungarian delegation could safely expect to be received by a friendly environment. There were accidents in the past, he said in reference to the Biden administration, but – in his words – they did not take these to heart, they were hoping for Donald Trump’s return. He stressed that there were no sins or mistakes on an historic scale encumbering Hungarian-US relations; not even if there were bitter situations in history, including the British-American bombing of Budapest in World War II and the fact that in 1956 America abandoned us. However, not even these incidents have inflicted deep enough wounds for us to look upon each other as enemies, he said.
At the same time, he observed in the context of international relations that there were few prime ministers in Europe who had not previously insulted President Trump, who had not said hurtful things, sometimes out of sheer malice. However, politics, too, is practised by human beings, he added. Characterising his relationship with Donald Trump, he said they always reassured each other in the most difficult moments that they could count on each other; this friendship exists.
Regarding the talks, he said he was certain that if he could suggest conflict solutions which were good for the Hungarians and were not bad for the Americans, the President would say yes. He said yes to everything that does not harm America, but is good for us, Mr Orbán laid down.
Mr Orbán said he had invited several individuals, and the Budapest peace summit was one of those visits which would – in his opinion – take place.
In answer to the question of whether Hungary’s pro-peace position is validated by the common platform shared with the US President, he said he is not sure whether it is necessary for anyone to validate the Hungarian position. It must stem from a deeper confirmation, partly from moral considerations, and partly from Hungarian national interests. “Therefore, I would refrain from using that word. It’s certainly a great deal of help,” he added.
Mr Orbán stressed that “it’s very difficult for a country of this size to say that we are 27, we are right, and we think that you’re wrong. It’s not so simple. What helps my case is that this has already happened before. On the issue of migration. And now everyone knows that the Hungarians were right. Meaning that one can be right against twenty-six. There is a precedent for that. But this is thin ice.”
“It’s not only the example of migration that shows that we may be right strategically on the issue of peace as well. Perhaps, what we’re saying is not so absurd, in light of the fact that a world power of this size, the leading power of the West, the United States, too, is saying the same thing. Perhaps, there may be then some truth in that Hungarian position. This way, it’s much easier for me to stand for this position in Europe. I’m not saying that it validates my position, but it lends it some weight, it makes my job easier, and it makes the others take my position more seriously, perhaps this is the right way to put it,” he added.
The Prime Minister raised the idea whether – should Biden have won – Hungary would have been able to persevere with its pro-peace position without becoming ridiculous and weightless, or could have fallen in its lonely position. “We don’t know the answer with one hundred per cent certainty, but we may well have been broken. So, President Trump’s return to the pro-peace corner of the ring amounts to a resuscitation for Hungary,” he stated.
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