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Two major nuclear powers want to deploy depleted uranium ammunition in Hungary’s immediate neighbourhood; this clearly shows that the situation is more serious than ever before, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Kossuth Radio’s programme ‘Good morning, Hungary’ on Friday.
In the interview recorded on Thursday, the Prime Minister said it best testifies to the gravity of the situation that the US President now says there is nothing wrong with Ukraine receiving depleted uranium ammunition from the United States. The Russian President then replies ‘what goes around comes around.’ Two major nuclear powers want to deploy depleted uranium ammunition in Hungary’s direct vicinity; this clearly shows that the situation is more serious than ever before, he laid down.
Mr Orbán stressed that there was no solution to the war on the battlefield; the world, Europe and Hungary in it have a vested interest in a ceasefire and peace talks.
The Prime Minister said the war situation is becoming ever more serious, “there are many unpredictable elements” to it. At times like this, the organisations and leaders responsible for Hungary’s security must stand by all the time so that should anything happen, they should be able to take action. Therefore, at the meeting of the defence council, the Defence Minister, the Chief of Staff and the Interior Minister were assigned specific tasks, he said, adding that “whatever can be done for the security of the country we have done it.”
He said they are also enhancing diplomatic efforts, but “the chances in this department are far from flying high” because Europe is in “a war psychosis”. The majority position is that this war can be brought to a conclusion and can be decided on the battlefield, he said.
He stressed that at the same time the Hungarian position is that there is no solution to this conflict on the battlefield, “we must take control back from soldiers, let diplomacy back in, let politicians talk, let there be a ceasefire, and in the meantime, peace talks should also start.” This is in the best interests of the world, Europe and Hungary in it, he pointed out.
He observed that once peace is restored, or at least a ceasefire is achieved, then “inflation, too, will return to the normal range, perhaps it will disappear altogether.”
Mr Orbán also said so far NATO had been careful; NATO’s position and the position of Hungarian diplomacy coincided as NATO decided not to take part in this military conflict, not to send weapons to Ukraine, and not to plan any military action. What is happening now – shipping of weapons, exchange of information and military support provided for Ukraine – is based purely on decisions adopted within Member State competence, he underlined.
He said the West believed that the Russians can be defeated in a military sense in such a way that Ukrainian soldiers are doing the physical fighting, while the West is providing weapons, equipment and information. “What we have here is a poorly calibrated, poorly assessed, misguided strategy” which is resulting in the prolongation of the war, the war becoming ever deeper and broader, he stated.
The Prime Minister highlighted that “speculators always abound when there is a war,” and George Soros is “a war speculator who is hoping to gain financial advantages at the expense of enormous human losses.” However, the pro-peace camp will be right, meaning that Hungary is on the right side, he stated.
He said also from a moral point of view they made the right decision when they elected to stand for peace, and in the end the pro-peace camp will prove to be right against the pro-war majority, their opinion will become general, but at least the majority opinion in the western world.
He observed it is concerning that a procedure has been instituted against former President of the United States Donald Trump “because if there is a person in the western world today who is able to stop this war and to restore peace,” it is him, and Hungary has a vested interest in the United States, too, being led by a pro-peace person.
Mr Orbán also said the government made a clear pledge in a very difficult situation: it pledged to reduce inflation to a single digit by the end of the year. This is why they have introduced multiples measures, there are some that need to be kept in effect, there are others that can be revoked, and new measures will also have to be adopted, he added.
He further pointed out that in an unpredictable situation, we need as many stable points as possible, and one such stable point is the budget, but even more the government’s will behind the budget. In times of war, we need a defence budget, we must adopt a budget which protects the most important things, beyond guaranteeing the country’s security, he stressed.
He said we must protect the financial situation of families, pensioners, the reduction of household energy bills, and we must also protect jobs. Additionally, in times of war it is not irrelevant where people keep their savings, “ in times of war, those help the country who keep their savings in the state treasury or in treasury bills,” he said, adding that “those who decide to help the country because they are prepared to keep their savings in treasury bills or government bonds must be rewarded for that decision,” must receive higher interest than they would receive on bank savings.
He highlighted that they had adopted measures with which they wanted to induce people to move their funds from bank savings into government securities and treasury bills, and for this they would offer high interest rates on government securities and would impose a tax on non-treasury bank savings. However, this is a temporary measure which will only be maintained while the war lasts, and once the war is over, it will be phased out, he explained.
The Prime Minister said there is a range of economic measures that Brussels has jurisdiction over, and Brussels has decided that Hungary must raise the excise duty on petrol and diesel. This effectively means that, with reference to green environmental criteria, they are making fuel more expensive to encourage people to consume less, he said.
He observed that this is so not only in the case of fuel, but also in relation to another product group that includes packaging materials and bottles. In respect of the latter, records will have to be set up and kept, these products will have to be tracked, and this will result in a variety of costs which will in turn increase the price of the processing of waste.
He said these are needless, unrealistic and ill-timed regulations because at this time there is wartime inflation, there are economic difficulties in the European Union, and so burdening the budgets of Member States with flawed Brussels economic decisions is a grave error.
As all these measures are weakening the economy and the war in itself is weakening national economies, the government will seek to introduce some new dynamism, energy and momentum into the Hungarian economy, and has drafted an economy protection action plan “to offset the flawed decisions imposed by Brussels,” Mr Orbán announced.
He added that as part of next week’s ‘Governmentinfo’ press conference, Gergely Gulyás, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office will inform members of the press and the public the usual way about the measures seeking to support the economy and the people with which they would like to offset the flawed Brussels instructions.
Regarding the EU draft on the mandatory migrant quotas, Mr Orbán said Hungary and Poland voted against the decision, “Slovakia, Bulgaria, Malta and perhaps Lithuania said a soft no,” meaning that several countries indicated that they disagreed with this proposed decision. In recent years, it seemed that the efforts to divert the attention of Brussels decision-makers away from the mandatory migrant distribution quotas to border protection were working “because the situation should be resolved not by distributing migrants, but by protecting Europe’s external borders,” he laid down.
However, “all of a sudden, a decision comes out of nowhere, in a rather coup-like manner and swiftly, which says that whichever country refuses to take migrants in must be forcefully obligated to do so with any means necessary.” They are creating rules which reserve the right for Brussels to tell us how many migrants to distribute, he added.
He said “here at home, the Left even denied that there were such intentions in Brussels.” There is a connection between the fact that “only the other day George Soros handed over control of his empire to his son who explicitly stated that he wanted to be much more political both in America and in Europe” and the fact that “the Soros Empire has now launched a counteroffensive here,” he pointed out.
He added that “the Soros Empire has struck back, and has pushed these mandatory migrant quotas down the throats of the majority of Europeans with a coup-like, very swiftly adopted decision”.
He said ever since this decision was adopted, “through the Soros Empire’s network, the news has quickly spread in the realm of migrants that there is a new situation now, Europe is eagerly awaiting them,” and illegal border crossers have become emboldened, they are behaving ever more aggressively at the southern border.
The Prime Minister said “there is a new viceroy at the head of the Soros Empire, and the Americans have placed a great deal of pressure on Europe.”
He highlighted that “we only want to be able to say that the Germans should be right in Germany and the Hungarians in Hungary, meaning that the Germans are free to pursue the migrant policy they want to.” However, Hungary believes that this is a risky experiment, the situation that migrants arrive in a country in masses from different cultures, and at that, illegally, poses a number of problems, and “we don’t want to take this risk,” Mr Orbán stated.
The Prime Minister said “we only ask of the Brusselites to not want to tell Hungary whom we Hungarians should live together with, to not want to tell us what kind of migration policy we should pursue” because this is Hungary’s internal affair.
