Orbán: Erdogan opponent a ‘Soros man’, would have been a tragedy if he had won

It would have been a “tragedy” had Recep Tayyip Erdogan not won Türkiye’s elections, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on public radio on Friday, adding that Erdogan’s opponent, a “Soros man”, would have “released four million refugees in Turkiye onto Europe”.

Orbán said Erdogan’s re-election had been a “great relief” for him, adding that he had prayed a lot for his victory. Had Erdogan’s opponent won, “one, two, or three million refugees … would appear at the Hungarian border before the end of this summer,” he said.

Orbán also said Hungary received its Russian gas supplies through Türkiye, and that country having a “pro-American leader or one supported by George Soros” would make it “strongly doubtful if the gas could reach Hungary or Serbia”.

Erdogan’s losing the election would have “given Türkiye a pro-war president”, the prime minister said, adding that “the ramifications would be unforeseeable”. Erdogan has a chance to mediate between Ukraine and Russia, as he earlier mediated over Ukraine’s grain exports, Orbán said.