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Talking to journalists before the Brussels EU summit, the Prime Minister said the number of votes cast was 2,284,732; the number of votes not in favour of Ukraine’s EU accession was 2,168,431. Based on this, 95 per cent of the votes were against, and only 5 per cent of respondents were for Ukraine’s EU accession.
Mr Orbán took the view that he had arrived in Brussels with a robust mandate. “My voice has become louder, more masculine; at the end of the day, I will say at the talks in the voice of more than two million Hungarians that Hungary doesn’t support Ukraine’s accession to the European Union,” he said.
In answer to the question of whether he believes it is conceivable that they will nonetheless avoid Hungary, and 26 or 25 Member States will adopt a joint declaration in connection with Ukraine’s EU membership, the Prime Minister said Hungary cannot be avoided on the issue of Ukraine’s European Union membership as in the end and also during the talks, a unanimous decision is required even for opening one chapter or another. “This is not available, so, this won’t happen, nothing of the kind can happen today that could have a legal effect on Ukraine’s European Union membership,” he stated.
He observed that “you can make statements, you can talk,” but the European Union will not have a common position because Hungary will not support it. “However, those who disagree with us – the twenty-six of them or however many they are – can say what they like separately, there is freedom here, too,” he said.
In answer to another question, he also spoke about the fact that with Ukraine’s EU membership, the EU would also integrate the war into the European Union which was a threat. “We wouldn’t like to be in the same community with a country which is at war,” he stated.
In answer to another question, the Prime Minister said there is no doubt that Hungary has received “very good offers” in connection with the 18th EU sanctions package, but they are working “some more” on it.
In response to a question related to the resolution of the US-European tariff war, he said in this regard he is pessimistic. In his view, the problem is that on the American side there is “a heavyweight negotiator,” while the European Union’s negotiating partners are “featherweights,” and so the US President is in a far superior position in this instance.
Answering a question relating to migration, he said the Hungarian position on this issue is rebelling. He added that they had discussed about a hundred times how to make the EU rules related to migration more effective, but nothing was happening. The only way to stop migration is to do what Hungary is doing, namely that no one is allowed to enter the territory of Hungary without a valid entry permit issued by the Hungarian authorities, he added.
In connection with migration, he recommended rebelling to all his EU counterparts, reminding everyone that the Hungarians are required to pay one million euros a day due to the stopping of migrants. “That’s the price of the revolution,” he observed.
In answer to the question of whether the law banning Pride should be enforced with force, meaning even at the expense of breaking up the march, Mr Orbán said Hungary is a civilised country where everyone is free to assemble, everyone can state their opinion, this is a constitutional right. At the same time, he stressed that one thing was not allowed. When constitutional rights clash, we cannot allow any right to take precedence over the right of child protection because the Constitution lays down that the right of child protection precedes all other freedoms. “We ask everyone not to do anything like this, but if someone nonetheless does so, then there is a clear statutory framework which must be enforced at times like this,” he said, stressing that Hungary is a civilised country where “we don’t hurt each other.”
“This is a country where there has not even been a civil war, perhaps 1956 was a little bit like that, but at any rate, even if we disagree, we don’t usually hurt each other. This is part of Hungarian politics,” he said.
In answer to a question about what his reaction would be if one of his five children wanted to attend Budapest Pride, he said they are all adults, they decide what they do themselves.
