Mr Orbán said “we’re at an exciting moment in time.” “Those who have strength are taking action; those who don’t are talking,” he added. He said the Russians and the Americans who are strong are negotiating and consulting, while the Europeans who are weak, are not even involved in this process and are being left out of this important question concerning Europe’s future, are talking.
There are ongoing US-Russian talks, if these prove to be successful, then “the flame of the war will definitely be turned down,” and people in Hungary, too, will be able to breathe a sigh of relief, he said, adding that the country will not be out of the woods yet, but may face a less tense and less risky period.
In continuation, the Prime Minister said if the Europeans’ will is enforced – who, in his opinion, want to continue the war, meaning that rather than seeking peace, they want to resolve the war on the battlefield – then “the war could move ever closer to us and the threat of war will intensify.”
He added that there would be an important meeting in Brussels today to be attended by the German chancellor and the President of the European Commission who would seek to convince the Belgians to seize the Russian assets frozen in their country, to throw them into the pool of European funds and to finance the war from this sum “with cunning legal solutions.”
He said if the Europeans succeed in this plan, an inordinate amount of money will flow to Ukraine during the period ahead, and then it will be Hungary’s task to stay out of this because Hungary does not want to send money there and does not want to become involved in the war. If, however, the Belgians resist, European leaders will have to admit that there is no money for the war, and neither should the solution be sought on the frontline. Instead, they should support the Americans in their talks with the Russians, he laid down.
Mr Orbán indicated that the Belgians were in a very peculiar situation as they had the frozen Russian assets in their custody, given that the Belgians were very active in the management of the currency reserves of various countries. The sum in question is in the magnitude of two hundred billion euros, and Belgian companies took responsibility for ensuring that the Russians will get this money back or can access it when they need it. The European Union put these Belgian companies into an impossible situation by having frozen the assets – which was an unprecedented move in international law, he added.
The Prime Minister pointed out that the Belgians did not want to take the risk that they would probably lose the resulting international lawsuits and would have to repay the money. Therefore, they want guarantees.
In the context of cases of corruption in Ukraine, Mr Orbán said Brussels is in a difficult situation because its own house is also on fire. The Prime Minister explained: The European Union’s second in command, the vice-president of the Commission, the former commissioner for foreign affairs is accused of having done something suspicious. While the European Union is swimming in corruption – and not just the Commission, but the European Parliament itself is badly affected by corruption cases – it should say something clever about corruption in Ukraine.
“This won’t work,” he said, adding that what is happening in Ukraine is also happening in Brussels, at times like this, “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours,” the Commission is not in an easy situation.
He said Hungary will sue the European Commission if they adopt a decision on the sanctions against the procurement of Russian oil and gas by avoiding the Hungarian veto. He explained: “Brussels is playing with marked cards,” they came up with the idea that the ban on the purchase of Russian oil and gas – from which Hungary and Slovakia received exemption earlier – is not a sanction, but a trade policy decision which does not require unanimity under EU law and which can also be adopted with a majority vote.
“Meaning that they’re avoiding the Hungarian veto, completely unlawfully,” he stressed, described this step as an open violation of the rule of law. “We will sue the Commission for this, […] if they adopt this decision, we will seek satisfaction, if necessary, via legal channels,” the Prime Minister laid down.
He observed that with this “we’re not yet out of the woods” because by the time a lawsuit was completed in Europe, “the war will end eight times over,” but Hungary must nonetheless indicate that the European Union had abandoned the path of the rule of law, was committing a breach, and was abusing its power.
He recalled that a sanction measure can only be adopted by the Member States with unanimity, and as Hungary did not support this measure, they were unable to adopt such a decision with binding force on us. “We achieved, I achieved, I negotiated this exemption,” he added. He warned that it would have tragic economic consequences for Hungary if gas and oil stopped coming from Russia. If there is no Russian gas, even according to conservative estimates, the household energy costs of households will increase 3 to 3.5-fold, and if there is no Russian oil, the price of fuel “will skyrocket,” he pointed out.
He described the need for the Hungarian economy and Hungarian families to remain on the supply route of Russian energy as an existential issue. In his view, in this regard, they have already warded off two threats: during his talks with the US President, they achieved that Hungary would be given exemption from the US sanctions imposed on Russian energy, while they agreed with the Russian president that whatever happens to the Russian energy system, Hungary will receive the quantities of oil and gas it previously contracted.
“Two enormous slabs of stone have already rolled off our chests,” but there is also a third one, it is Brussels which wants to impose a total ban on the use of Russian oil and gas, Mr Orbán explained, indicating that this European decision would only take effect in 2027, and so therefore it is to be hoped that by then peace will be restored and the whole policy of sanctions itself will be a thing of the past.
Peace is the best solution from the viewpoint of Hungary’s energy supply and financial stability because peace will sweep away the regime of sanctions and will allow us to return to normal cooperation, the Prime Minister said.
Mr Orbán stressed that if the Tisza Party’s programme were to take effect, “we can forget about the minimum wage increase.” He highlighted that the parties to the wage agreement had acted on the premise that the present economic policy would remain in force, and so in the event of a change, “this agreement will burst within a second.”
The Prime Minister described the Tisza Party’s programme as terrible and a nightmare, highlighting that the Left always increases taxes, constantly interferes with the economy and endlessly regulates, while the Right believes that money is in the best place with those who make it, and only interferes at a single point, in supporting families because they would like families raising children not to be any worse off than people who decide not to have children.
Tisza would take more than a thousand billion forints away from families, three times that much from businesses and would in the meantime send the money to Brussels to finance the war in Ukraine, he said, adding that the Hungarian Right refuses to give money for that purpose, and does not care if conflicts stem from this with Brussels, “we’ll fight them out.”
This is a genuine programme, a genuine threat, the Prime Minister stated, stressing that those who choose Tisza’s plans must be aware of the grave financial consequences, including that if Tisza’s programme takes effect, “we can forget about the minimum wage increase” because that requires a right-wing economic policy.
Regarding his talks in Moscow, Mr Orbán said it is of significance what weapons the West sells to Ukraine because its army is harming the Russian energy sector with them, and as a result, with its strikes the Ukrainian army has already reduced Russia’s energy capabilities by minimum 10 per cent.
We agreed with the Russians that there cannot be a military situation in Russia that would prevent them from supplying Hungary; we have an effective guarantee for this, the Prime Minister laid down.
The Hungarians have transcended the painful 5 December referendum equally in a public law, cultural and philosophical sense, and are moving forward at full speed with the effort of creating Hungarian national unity, Mr Orbán stated in connection with the 2004 referendum on the expedited naturalisation of Hungarians beyond the borders which was unsuccessful due to a low turnout and where ‘yes’ votes accounted for 51 per cent.
The Prime Minister said on the day he experienced the vote as a victory because he did not think that the Hungarians would support the dual citizenship of Hungarians beyond the borders in a sufficient majority. He recalled that the Left’s position was that a Hungarian was a person who lived in Hungary, while according to right-wing culture, a country had borders, but a nation did not. He added: he was happy that on 5 December there were more ‘yes’ votes than ‘no’ votes because he knew that the moment would come, “the Almighty and the Hungarian electorate will give us a chance, we will have a two thirds majority,” and they will be able to grant citizenship to Hungarians beyond the borders.
The moral basis of a later decision came into being on that day, he pointed out, recalling that in 2010 the introduction of dual citizenship was one of their very first decisions, in reference to this shocking referendum that remained a bad memory for many.
He said in the meantime, there has been a change on the Left as well, the culture has “withered away” – though it still has its advocates – that claims that those who do not live in Hungary are not Hungarians, while the other side which says that every Hungarian in the world belongs to one and the same nation has gained in strength.
