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Mr Orbán took the view that the national forces – patriots – made great strides in the European Parliament (EP) elections, but did not achieve a breakthrough, while he also spoke about the fact that there is no need for taxing tips in Hungary either.
The Prime Minister described Ursula von der Leyen’s performance in the past five years as extremely poor. He said the EU has failed as regards the green transition, and it will destroy European industry if it continues unchanged. As regards the issue of the war, rather than focusing on peace, the EU is concentrating on becoming involved in the war on the Ukrainians’ side, while migrants continue to flow into Europe, he listed.
The European people would deserve much more after a period of five years
he laid down in summary,
adding that “von der Leyen is not a political opponent of ours” but “our employee” as it is the duty of the president of the Commission to follow the direction set by the prime ministers. Ursula von der Leyen receives her salary from the EU budget, and so she is in a state of dependency: she must do what the prime ministers tell her to do, he argued.
According to Mr Orbán, the true problem is not what the president of the Commission did or did not do, but that the prime ministers allowed her to do what she did or not to do more as in European politics the force of gravity lies in the European Council, the body comprised of the prime ministers. He said he did not support the re-election of Ursula von der Leyen because compared with the guidelines issued by the Council, her performance was poor, and therefore a better executor should be found.
In his view, the next step of meaningful change can be achieved in the upcoming national elections. He pointed out that in September there will be elections in Austria, but in a number of countries the incumbent governments “are barely surviving and are in danger of being toppled,” and early elections are therefore expected, while in Germany there will be state elections at the beginning of the autumn. “I sincerely hope that the composition of the prime ministers will change and through this we will be able to give von der Leyen better instructions than we have done to date, and we prime ministers will be better at holding her accountable than we have been so far,” he said.
Mr Orbán said “you shouldn’t regard your own employee as an opponent;” we should instead regard those prime ministers as our opponents who stand for a position that is flawed from the viewpoint of Europe. Those party leaders should also be regarded as political opponents, he said in continuation, who work against Hungary in the EP such as Manfred Weber of the People’s Party who is known to be “a Hungarian hater,” is a pro-war politician and supports migration. The Hungarian delegation will have to fight battles against him.
He said the group of patriots is the third largest force in the EP, will soon forge alliances and will at some point become the second largest force. He said he is hopeful that in the upcoming elections the patriots will succeed in achieving a breakthrough, for instance, in Austria, and this will be combined with the US presidential election due to be held in November. By the end of the year, patriots will be in the majority in the western world, he stated.
The Prime Minister said it is a problem that European leaders are not doing what the people want. He said people in the whole of Europe want peace instead of war, but the Left is pro-war. The people want migration to be stopped; the Left is pro-migration. The people do not want their families to be turned into a joke and the family bond that is important for them – which is organised around one man and one woman and the raising of children – to be mocked with all sorts of other forms of cohabitation elevated to the same level; “let’s call that simply ‘gender.’” Meanwhile the Left is pro-gender, he listed. He also said the people want national sovereignty and national pride, but the Left never wanted those things and looks upon them more as a source of threat.
He believes that the people want a different Europe and different European politics than that which the Left has to offer them. By contrast, there is a clear right-wing vision, at the axis of which stand the patriots, envisaging a pro-family, anti-migration and pro-peace Europe comprised of nations and run by proud patriots, he said.
The Prime Minister also spoke about the fact that the improvement of European competitiveness is a central topic of the Hungarian presidency, and so Hungary will present a competitiveness pact at the Council meeting which will be held – focusing on the topic – in Budapest on 8 November. He indicated that he had already discussed the pact with the French, the Italians and the Germans.
If we are competitive, we live well; if we are not, we do not live well, he stressed, adding that this question is connected to the war as it is very difficult to improve competitiveness while “an inordinate amount of money” is being poured into the war in Ukraine by Europe. In his view, this sum is now well above EUR 100 billion, and meanwhile there is less money for European farmers, the electric transition, and the development of roads, bridges and railway lines.
He stressed that when they are working for peace, they are also working for Hungary as if there is peace, Hungary will immediately find itself in a different economic situation and far more opportunities will open up to the people. As long as there are times of war, we are compelled to draft war budgets; “if we are finally able to restore peace, we could then have a peacetime budget,” he added, indicating that the draft of a “peacetime budget is already in the drawer.” The government would present to Parliament this budget – which would double the Hungarian economy’s growth – once peace is restored. “That’s how important the question of war or peace is,” he said.
In the context of his peace mission, Mr Orbán observed that President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen and the European liberals are naive people, and so they cannot be accused of wartime profiteering. “Nor am I accusing either von der Leyen or pro-war European leaders of being in the pockets of dollar speculators, the likes of George Soros.” They believe that peace can be restored by making the parties see reason, he said, adding that they also expect from the peace mission that the shooting will stop the very next day.
According to the Prime Minister, this is a misunderstanding which is amply demonstrated by the incident of the bombed children’s hospital: there is a need for a peace mission because if there is no peace mission, the war will continually escalate, extend and intensify, and those who live there will have to endure ever more horrible atrocities.
He highlighted that he had spoken to both parties, and had written his report on the meetings which laid down that the two parties did not want peace. The Prime Minister took the view that the warring parties will not see reason and admit of their own accord that peace is better than war because they believe that they can win and the continuation of the war will bring them advantages. War is a question of strength, and if the warring parties do not want peace, the question we must ask is whether the world’s major power centres are prepared to take collective action for peace, he added. He stressed that there were three such players: China, the United States and the European Union. In his view, if “these three power centres speak the same language and agree that there should finally be peace, we will be able to lead the warring parties to the negotiating table and to agree on a ceasefire.” He observed that the Chinese are pro-peace, the Americans – “if President Trump takes over” – will be pro-peace, and only the European Union will then be required to help the parties to the negotiating table.
He stressed that the essence of the peace mission lies in perseverance; this mission must be pursued continuously and systematically, day in, day out. “Every day, I have talks with someone about some opportunities, details, ever further initiatives,” Mr Orbán added, indicating at the same time that he only informs members of the public about one meeting or another subsequently because there are many opponents of the peace mission, and if there is information about what the next step will be, many will launch into action in order to foil it.
He observed that in Europe “the ladies and gentlemen dug themselves into the trenches up to their necks,” it is difficult to climb out and to support a policy of peace by the negotiating table instead. At the same time, in his view, Europe will turn, too, on the day of the US presidential election, at the latest, but it would be better if rather than taking a panicked, hasty turn, Europe would change over – as part of a carefully considered process – from a pro-war policy to a pro-peace policy.
In the context of the attempt on the life of US Republican candidate for president-former US President Donald Trump, he drew attention to the fact that the number of spectacular assassination attempts grabbing the world’s attention is increasing, and every attempt is being committed against anti-war, pro-peace politicians. In his view, “the pro-war forces are in such a tense, agitated state of excitement that they’re trying to sweep the pro-peace forces off the stage or the centre of politics.” He indicated that he had spoken to President Trump two days before the assassination attempt; they spoke for more than two hours. Summing up his impressions, he said Mr Trump is in fine form, is ready to fight, and this “also showed perhaps in the way he survived the attempt on his life.” “We should be grateful to the Lord for not allowing him to be killed,” the Prime Minister said, expressing hope that this means that the Almighty has plans with the president. “And what else could be the Lord’s plan in such times of war than that someone should finally bring about peace,” he observed.
Mr Orbán mentioned that he had also spoken to Mr Trump about economic issues, and his programme had some points that Hungary would be happy to adopt already next year. He said he found the presidential candidate’s proposal regarding the tax-free status of tips as remarkable. “I see no reason here in Hungary either for taxing tips,” he said, adding that they keep being inspired by Mr Trump’s economic programme, including the item “no tax on tips,” but there are other issues as well, and he and Mr Trump spoke about them at length.
Regarding the child abuse incident that occurred in a Szolnok adventure park, the Prime Minister said the incident is unacceptable, intolerable and cries out for consequences. Mr Orbán stressed that the organisers of children’s camps owed responsibility to the parents for the children entrusted to them; they agree to take good care of them, to look after them and to ensure that they spend their time usefully.
It is the duty of the government to ensure that those who are unable to live up to that responsibility – and in this instance, they clearly weren’t – should not be allowed to organise camps because we don’t want to and cannot entrust our children to such people. This must be enforced,
he stated.
There can be no incidents where in a camp an adult physically abuses children, he stressed.
