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“The situation that we had our meeting in today can be best described as difficult, complex and dangerous,” said the Hungarian Prime Minister, stressing that European peace, stability and welfare are under threat all at once.
The war which Russia started against Ukraine has been ongoing for almost three years now, the Middle East is ablaze and there is a threat of further escalation, conflicts are destabilising North Africa, illegal migration is an unceasing challenge, now of a magnitude breaking all previous records, while in the global economy we may witness the development of blocs and fragmentation on a scale not seen since the Cold War, he stressed.
He said they now held the fifth meeting of the European Political Community, the biggest diplomatic event in the history of Hungary, attended by 42 heads of state and government, the leaders of European institutions, the NATO Secretary General and the representative of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. He added that they had met because they believed that together they could give better answers to these threats and challenges than one by one.
The Prime Minister said his personal assessment of the situation is that they all perceived that there is no time to lose. In his view, “history has evidently sped up,” in the wake of the elections in America a chapter has come to an end, and the world will change, “faster than we think.”
“War or peace, migration or defence, the development of blocs or connectivity, subordination or European sovereignty,” he listed the weighty questions that are, in his view, on the agenda at present.
The Hungarian Prime Minister drew attention to the fact that at the meeting no formal decisions had been adopted, and “a fair number of” contradictory views had been voiced. Therefore, he is only able to render an account of the issues on which there was agreement.
He said at the meeting there was agreement that they must respond to the result of the US elections. “We must be aware that major changes are coming,” he indicated. In his view, there was also agreement that there should be peace in Europe as soon as possible and that in the future Europe should take greater responsibility for its own peace and security. “We cannot expect” the Americans alone “to defend us,” the Hungarian Prime Minister added.
He said they also agreed that Europe must remain a meaningful actor in the upcoming talks and processes that will decide our future.
These talks will also affect the fate of Europe, and Europe must be present with sufficient weight in order to have a chance to influence the decisions that will be made later, he laid down.
Mr Orbán said he is convinced that the issue of migration pushes the very limits of European institutions. This issue is a major source of tension and stress, everyone is unsatisfied with the present situation and everyone wants change, he added.
He said there is a major obstacle to the intention of political leaders to effect change which must be removed, broken through; that obstacle is called ‘judicial activism.’
He said “we make decisions,” governments implement them, and our joint decisions first crash into European, and later into national judicial decisions. As a consequence, the results achieved in curbing migration “burst like bubbles” in the end.
The only exception to this is Hungary which has always sided with rebelling against judicial activism, he stressed.
The Prime Minister said “I don’t think we can stop migration unless we rebel against the regulations and judicial rulings now in effect.”
He said, in addition to a plenary session, they also had discussions in working groups. One working group dealt with the issue of economic security, while there was a working group concerned with the issue of migration.
Mr Orbán said at the meeting they expressed their gratitude to French President Emmanuel Macron who launched this form of cooperation two years ago.
The Hungarian Prime Minister, who held the press conference together with the Albanian Prime Minister, also highlighted that the attendees of the meeting concluded that there was a need for a continuation, and that in fact, they had to reinforce their efforts. Therefore, they all agreed to be hosted next May in Tirana, Albania by Prime Minister Edi Rama.
Today, it is evident that the pro-peace camp is growing in size, while with the US election the pro-peace camp has become enormous, Mr Orbán said in answer to questions from journalists at the press conference of the meeting of the European Political Community (EPC).
Regarding the issue of peace, he has no authorisation to stand for a position on which there was no full agreement, he said, adding that there are differences on the issue of the continuation of the war versus a swift ceasefire and peace talks.
We don’t talk about victory and defeat. We talk about a ceasefire, we talk about human lives, we talk about stopping the destruction,
he said, pointing out that Europe must respond to the new situation that will emerge in the wake of the US elections.
This will not happen overnight, but today we took an important step towards finding an answer which will be acceptable for all 27 Member States of the European Union, he indicated, adding that after the EPC summit there will be an informal dinner with the participation of the twenty-seven European leaders, while the Friday EU summit will provide another opportunity for taking further steps towards finding a common answer.
In the context of the war, the Hungarian Prime Minister quoted an old Hungarian saying, ‘old sins cast long shadows.’ In his opinion, this is also true intellectually, meaning that if someone starts acting without the necessary intellectual input, they will have to pay the price for it sooner or later.
He said the essence of a war is victory or defeat; however, the Europeans engaged in the war without clarifying what victory entailed. If victory has no definition, how do you know how long you should keep fighting? he asked the question. “We never clarified: Should Crimea be taken back as well? Sevastopol NATO flag? Moscow? What constitutes victory?” he said, adding that as these questions were not answered in advance, it is difficult to stop.
He pointed out that this intellectual job cannot be spared, “we must go back to the beginning,” and must ask the question of what expected results they wanted to achieve. He expressed hope that by Friday evening they would be closer to completing the job that they had failed to complete than they had been this morning.
In answer to the question of whether Russian President Putin is in the pro-war or pro-peace camp, he said they are now discussing the western position, NATO’s position, not Russia’s – who is pro-peace and who is pro-war. This debate is solely about the western community, not about the Russians, this is not part of the job in hand, he pointed out.
He described a ceasefire as the first step because in his view this is necessary for establishing communication which is a prerequisite for the conclusion of a peace deal.
Mr Orbán expressed concern regarding the fact that if they talk too much about the long-term solution to peace, the chances of a ceasefire will become diminished. “Now, they must stop killing each other, that’s my recommendation,” he laid down.
Regarding the loan of EUR 50 billion intended for Ukraine which would be co-financed by the European Union and the United States, he said the question arises that if the United States refuses to take part in the funding of the facility in the future, how Europe will take care of this on its own and whether it is ready to do so at all.
Additionally, this sum will evidently not be enough, there will be further requests for funding, and the question will arise who will finance them and from what, which nations will still be ready to invest more in this, he pointed out.
He also observed that the European people wanted to finance less and less a war which they did not understand; they do not understand its goal, how long it will last and whether the sanctions will prove to be successful.
In answer to a question, Mr Orbán also stressed that the result of peace talks would determine not only the future of Ukraine. It will also determine the new European security architecture. “If the Europeans want to be involved in the talks about the construction of the European security architecture, it’s important that we communicate with all parties in the war, or else someone else will do so,” he stressed.
Regarding US-Hungarian relations, he said a great many things have gone wrong in that department in the past four years, Hungary has been compelled to suffer discrimination in many areas. “Rectifying these ills will be the first issue of our cooperation with the new administration, and we also have plans of an economic nature, I will talk about them in good time,” he stated.
Concerning his relationship with Donald Trump, the Prime Minister said there is no doubt it is an enormous chance for Hungary that it has a close alliance with the United States like never before. “This offers us opportunities which we will utilise,” he pointed out, adding that he is always proud to have the chance to fight together with people who want to enforce the people’s will against the power elite of the day. It is called democracy, he laid down.
He also said on trade issues US President Donald Trump “is a very tough negotiating partner,” and so in his view, “no one should have illusions” because there will be difficult talks with the United States regarding the future trade structure.
In answer to the question of whether on Thursday evening he will toast with champagne in the company of the 26 European leaders after Donald Trump’s victory, he said he only partially honoured his earlier promise to that effect. They will uncork a few bottles of champagne; however, as he was in Kyrgyzstan during the presidential election, and customs are different over there, they “tapped” the vodka supplies and shared their joy over the fantastic result, he observed.
In the context of illegal migration, Mr Orbán recalled that in 2015 when the migration crisis started, the first thing the Hungarian government did was rebel. “We built our fence at a time when this was regarded as an original sin,” he said, adding that since then other countries, too, have built fences, but this is no longer seen as a sin.
Hungary then introduced the system which is the only solution to migration, namely that no one is allowed to enter the territory of the country until their application is assessed, he recalled, highlighting that in the past ten years he has not heard a single proposal – other than the Hungarian model – that offered a genuine solution to the problem.
However, today, legal rules are making the situation more difficult. For instance, Hungary was ruled against by the European Court due to the only solution that offers genuine protection, he said, expressing criticism. He pointed out that Hungary protected not only its own borders, but the whole of Europe, and would not let anyone in henceforth either.
He highlighted that today there was no other solution than that many countries rebel against the current bureaucratic, jungle-like regulations and judicial activism. However, until this rebellion becomes pan-European, nothing will work, he observed.
I’m the only prime minister in the whole of Europe who has survived the migration crisis since 2015. And there is a single reason for this, namely that I have always remained on the people’s side
he recalled.
In his words, this means security, border protection and protecting the sensation of feeling at home in one’s own country. Those who act otherwise will fail, he warned.
In answer to another question about whether his goal is to dismantle the system of checks and balances in connection with illegal migration and whether he intends to curtail the powers of the judiciary, he said we have laws adopted on the basis of the Constitution, and in connection with migration we follow the national statutory path.
At the same time, the European Commission sued Hungary before the European Court. They decided that what we did was bad, not good, so we must pay and must change our laws. If we changed the laws without the amendment of the Constitution, we would go against the latter which is something we cannot do, he explained.
He pointed out that the amendment of the Constitution in the context of migration was impossible. This is what he meant when he said that this was a catch-22 situation, and this is what he described as judicial activism, Mr Orbán argued, taking the view that the situation is the same in Italy as well.
In his opinion, in the context of migration national governments were paralysed by the fact that national courts followed the rulings of the European Court, rather than national law. He said it is evident that in almost every country the majority of people reject illegal immigration. At the same time, he pointed out that national governments were unable to enforce the will of the people. The situation is complex, it is not so simple as that there is a system of checks and balances. It is about European sovereignty and over-regulation which takes the possibility of deciding away from the national level and raising it to the European leve, he pointed out.
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