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In the interview broadcast from the Brussels studio of the public service media, the Prime Minister warned that the position adopted by the other 26 European Member States regarding the continuation of the war had no reasonable basis.
“We have always said that there should be peace, we’ve been saying this for three years,” Mr Orbán recalled.
He said the Hungarians cannot endure the consequences of such a war, or even if they can, only with much difficulty. The essence of the other 26 EU Member States’ “counterstrategy” is that “rather than peace, they should convince the Ukrainians and also themselves that it makes sense to continue the war” even without the United States, he pointed out.
If the Europeans see this through, this war will completely clean us out, he stated.
He stressed that “there is nothing new” about the fact that there was a difference of opinion between Hungary and the other 26 Member States, so far we had succeeded in bridging this difference. However, now a difference of opinion exists between the United States and “the group of pro-peace countries” led by it and the 26 other Member States about “whether we should continue the war or there should be peace.”
Regarding the proceedings of Thursday’s EU summit, the Prime Minister said instead of a pro-peace position, the other EU Member States decided on the continuation of the war in the presence of the Ukrainian President. He indicated that he would have liked to find out what the others were hoping for, given that despite the fact that so far 26 EU Member States and the United States had supported Ukraine in the war under way for three years now, “the Russians are still winning on the frontline.”
Now that the Americans are quitting, will the remaining 26 countries stand a better of chance of bringing this war to a successful conclusion? This is a question that there is no answer to, he stated, pointing out that with the continued support they will take on “very severe financial consequences” as someone will have to finance the continuation of the war even after the departure of the Americans.
He stressed that no money would be forthcoming from NATO either because the balance of power had changed within the organisation; the United States, Turkey with the second largest NATO army as well as the Hungarians and the Slovaks, too, want peace.
He recalled that in a keen debate at the EU summit on Thursday, European leaders discussed how much money they would be giving Ukraine and for what. The Europeans want to provide funds, on the one hand, for the maintenance of the current Ukrainian army of 800,000, and additionally, according to the Ukrainian President, after the war, in times of peace, they would need an army of one million. Secondly, they should finance Ukraine as a state which is dysfunctional at present. Thirdly, Europe must reinforce its own armies; and Ukraine’s EU membership, too, is “knocking on the door” which will be a fourth enormous item.
He said “there is no such money in the world,” not in Europe, but perhaps not even in America. He said “today it seems like I exercised my veto – there is no denying that we are not part of what they adopted here – but it’s only a question of weeks and they will come back, they will be confronted with the fact that there is no money for these goals.”
We must seriously think about the financing of post-war Ukraine because we do not want all of Europe’s money – including Hungary’s EU funds and the funds generated here at home – to go to Ukraine, the Prime Minister stated.
Mr Orbán said today, Ukraine’s EU membership would destroy the European, including the Hungarian, economy.
He said today in Europe a concept is prevailing which seeks to support Ukraine whilst destroying Europe economically in the process. He added that “helping is all well and good,” and the Ukrainians need help, but we cannot help them “destroying ourselves in the process.”
He took the view that this process must be stopped in good time because at this point in time, no responsible decision can be made about this issue. He stressed that Ukraine could only become a member of the European Union if all Member States supported this. Rather than accelerating the talks, every last detail must be thoroughly considered; this is not the time to make a responsible decision about their membership, he indicated, adding that this process must be postponed, extended in time.
The Prime Minister confirmed that he would like to “carry off” an opinion vote on this topic in Hungary as swiftly as possible.
Among the issues to be considered, he mentioned the issue of agriculture, given that farmers are the number one group of Hungarian society at risk in the event of Ukraine’s possible EU membership. Ukraine produces large quantities of genetically modified crops under much less regulated production conditions, and if these crops are dropped on the European market, that will push prices down and will eventually destroy our farmers, he added, recalling that this problem already emerged for Hungarian, Polish and Romanian farmers when trade between Ukraine and Europe was opened up.
As another important issue, he mentioned the fact that in Ukraine there are 800,000 armed people, while the country has “never been famous for its public security.” He stressed that at this point in time, it would be irresponsible to provide free movement to Hungary for the citizens of such a country.
Mr Orbán further spoke about the fact that in the event of Ukraine’s possible EU membership, it would also be difficult to protect Hungarian jobs. At present, Hungary is able to employ 30,000 to 50,000 guest workers, but would be unable to take in hundreds of thousands, the Prime Minister pointed out.
He said they will go through these questions in an opinion vote, and this vote must be implemented swiftly and efficiently – similar to national consultations – so that everyone can state their opinions.
In the radio interview, Mr Orbán said regarding the Thursday EU summit that he was not the only one who tried to remain grounded in reason; countries economically weightier than Hungary, too, said they must do the sums: how much it would cost to maintain an army of one million in Ukraine, to operate the Ukrainian state, to carry out a European rearmament programme and to simultaneously bear the burdens resulting from Ukraine’s EU membership.
According to the Prime Minister, this calculation will conclude that we cannot afford all this, and so they will even have to modify the itinerary adopted by the 26 Member States with respect to Ukraine because it has no financial basis. He took the view that sooner or later, life would force the countries committed to war to move to the peace camp because people everywhere in Europe wanted peace.
In the context of the reduction of household energy bills, the Prime Minister said if we accepted the Brussels position regarding the elimination of subsidies – which some Brussels agents also stand for in Hungary – then every family would pay around HUF 500,000 more for gas and electricity a year.
He highlighted that when a country was under such intense pressure – say, when Hungary had been on the issue of migration – unity, consultations and referenda all mattered. He said this is the situation with household energy prices as well. We have been under enormous pressure for years to do away with the household energy subsidies because we are curbing the profits of large energy companies. If Hungarian families had to pay market prices, Hungarian families would pay much more and the money would go into the pockets of energy companies, he pointed out.
He added that Brussels believed that energy prices had to be freely determined. The government should not interfere, while companies should be allowed to generate profits according to the logic of the market. We do not agree with this; for a variety of reasons we believe that millions of Hungarian families would not be able to survive if every month they had to pay such high prices for gas and electricity as are now customary in Europe, he pointed out.
He also observed that Brussels had its people in Hungary who stood for the same position. It is now the Tisza Party that says that it is all humbug, we should forget it, there is no need for it.
Mr Orbán said domestic supermarket chains have one week to reduce prices in order to avoid the introduction of price regulation. He said it is good news that talks with supermarket chains about the reduction of their profit margins are making progress, but – he added – not fast enough.
Some supermarket chains have already started reducing their prices; there are shops where one can see that in the case of the products designated by the government as the most important, there is a decrease in prices, but this is not enough, meaning that the Minister for the National Economy must continue this job, he indicated.
“I’d like to avoid having to intervene with official means; whether in the regulation of prices or the regulation of traders’ profits. Neither is good for the economy in the long term, but if not everyone joins the reduction of prices, we will be compelled to embark on this path,” Mr Orbán stated.
He stressed that prices did not rise, but were raised, and so those who raised prices must realise that there was a limit they could not go beyond.
Mr Orbán further mentioned in the interview that “corrupt dollars” had come to Hungary not only from the United States, but also from Bussels, with a view to influencing Hungarian public opinion. This, too, must be investigated and uncovered.
He highlighted that there were “good dollars” given for investments and developments, but there were also bad, “corrupt dollars” which came not in order to help the Hungarian economy, but to buy influence.
In his view, the previous government of the United States used the money of American taxpayers to buy journalists, politicians and fake civil-society organisations in other countries. They spent an enormous amount of money on this in Hungary, too, he pointed out, adding that this is not acceptable.
He said people in Hungary are also paid from Brussels in order to stand for what Brussels wants, rather than the views of the Hungarian government, the opinions of the Hungarian people and public opinions stated in Hungarian referenda.
This is more shocking than the American issue because the Brussels money includes our money, too; they sent back money from our contributions in order to influence and to change the Hungarian government’s positions, say, on the issue of the reduction of household energy bills, he observed.
He indicated that the laws which were necessary to prevent the recurrence of such incidents could be adopted by around Easter. He observed that “the third till” was that of the Soros Network whose cash flows, too, would have to be uncovered and exposed.
Regarding the expected domestic political consequences, he said many hundreds of millions or even many billions of forints will be removed from Hungarian public life, and finally, rather than hearing the voice of foreigners – expressed through concealed contacts – in Hungarian public opinion, we will have debates which are truly important for Hungary and are based on the best interests of the Hungarian people.
Today, we hear many voices in Hungarian politics behind which we may find Brussels, “their masters are in Brussels,” Mr Orbán stressed, adding that he who pays the piper calls the tune. In this instance, too, those who provide the funds tell the organisations stating opinions, positions and organising political campaigns that result in the influencing of public opinion what to stand for.
