Orbán: EP debate on Hungary is a ‘Soros campaign event’

The European Parliament’s debate on the rule of law in Hungary will be a “George Soros-type seance, an election rally, a campaign event”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public Kossuth Radio on Friday.

Orbán said he had always fought for “the Hungarian national interest” but he would not aid and abet next week’s “pro-migration campaign event” in Brussels.

The European left wing’s Spitzenkandidat, Frans Timmermans, who is currently the first Vice-President of the European Commission, is “Soros’s man”, he said, referring to the American-Hungarian billionaire.

“Soros is now open about wanting to take over European institutions,” the prime minister insisted.

The progress of the infringement procedures against Hungary, which the commission decided to step up on Thursday, is also a sign of Soros’s big influence “and that he wants to increase it even further”, Orbán said. This attempt should be thwarted at May’s EP election, “where we want pro-migration MEPs to be left in minority”, he said.

Regarding the EP’s decision to triple the funding of “Soros’s NGOs”, Orbán said that this was “a decision executing point six of the Soros-plan”. The initiative to couple funding with the rule of law in member states was a “primitive proposal” contrary to EU rules, he said. Such a ruling would need the votes of all member states, and he would never vote for it. “It will not become reality,” the prime minister said.

Orbán said his ruling Fidesz party had always opposed such “anti-Hungary” decisions, while the Hungarian opposition had supported them.

Regarding the latest “National Consultation” survey sent to Hungarian households in the autumn, Orbán said that some 1.38 million people had completed them, showing the readiness of Hungarians to “take action in great numbers” when truly important issues were raised. Orbán said he had asked the Head of the Prime Minister’s Office, Gergely Gulyás, to prepare a proposal addressing the contemporary challenges child protection services face and the government’s potential responses.

Regarding family policy, Orbán called it a “historic decision” that Hungarians wanted to see demographic problems solved with strategic family policy rather than through immigration. Katalin Novák, the state secretary for youth and family affairs, laid out a “long and very expensive” action plan to protect families, he said. This puts the protection of young families first, he said.

It would be “worthwhile” enshrining some elements of family policy in the constitution, Orbán said in response to a question, adding that he would “tread carefully here”.

On the topic of the economy, Orbán said Hungary “is among the world’s top ten countries from the point of view of investments”. The goal, he said, was to raise Hungary’s level of economic growth by at least 2 percent above the European average each year.

In connection with the reduction of public debt, he said Hungary’s economy was sufficiently strong for the public debt level to be reduced to below 50 percent from the current 71 percent in a couple of years, but this would mean less money being spent on economic development. A balance must be struck between these two aims, he added.

Referring to the death of Andrew G Vajna, the government commissioner responsible for the development of the national film industry, Orbán said Vajna had loved his country and it spoke volumes that he had created the most heart-rending film about the 1956 revolution, Freedom.