According to PM Orbán, Brussels wants to enter the war

Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday that preparations were under way in Brussels for Europe’s entry to war, and added that it was necessary to strengthen Hungary’s self-defence capabilities.

There are some alarming similarities between now and the era when preparations were being made for the first and second world wars, Orbán told public broadcaster Kossuth Radio.

“What’s happening today in Brussels and Washington, or currently more in Brussels than in Washington, is setting the mood for an eventual military conflict, which we might as well describe as preparing Europe’s entry to war,” he said.

At the same time, Orbán said there was a need for an army because that in itself would not result in war. Weakness is the most common reason for wars, so it is necessary to have an army and soldiers, to make preparations, and to strengthen self-defence capabilities, he said.

Orbán said Hungary lacked such capabilities for a long time and they are still not sufficient. The country’s army is not yet strong enough, but progress is being made to strengthen it, he added.

He said that in response to the question whether Russia would stop after defeating Ukraine, the answer is that the Russian army was fighting a serious and difficult war with Ukrainians and it was still unable to defeat them. NATO’s military capabilities are incomparably greater than Russia’s, Orbán said, adding that he did “not consider the assumption logical that Russia, which cannot even defeat Ukraine, would all of a sudden come and swallow the entire Western world”.

He said chances were very slim that anyone would dare to attack a NATO member country today.

NATO has made it clear that it is a defence alliance and will not tolerate any military action that would harm the sovereignty of any NATO member state, he added.

Orbán said he interpreted the references to a threat by Russia as preparatory maneuvers by Europeans or Westerners towards entering the war.

Instead of handling the conflict as a war between two Slavic nations and localising it, the western Europeans recognise the conflict as their own war, Orbán said. The shifting of the German position well demonstrated how “we are getting closer and closer to war every month”. Now they are already talking about plans that certain countries could destroy Russian military equipment in Ukrainian airspace or enter Ukrainian territory other than the frontline, he added.

“With an understanding of European history, this can be regarded as a communication maneuver for war activity,” he said.

Orbán said it was impossible to tell how long it would take for the European strategy to succeed, how many more weapons and money would have to be sent.

Sooner or later, it could result in a confrontation between NATO, the European Union and Russia, the last being a nuclear power, a situation that would give reason for “the darkest visions”, he said.

Hungary is currently in a very difficult situation because “we are the country that insists on NATO’s basic treaty and the consensus that determines its mission,” the prime minister said. NATO is a defence alliance which was set up to ensure that in case any member state is attacked, the others would step in to help,” he said. The idea had not been raised that NATO would carry out military operations beyond its territory and engage in war with countries that are outside the alliance, he said.

“At the same time, it’s as if everyone was in a different future and there are preparations under way in Brussels by working groups on how NATO could participate in the Russia-Ukraine war,” he said.

As regards Hungary’s situation in that context, Orbán said that Hungary, as a NATO member has representatives in those groups, “but we do not want to participate in the conflict, either by providing financial contribution or by sending weapons; not even within NATO’s framework”. He said he was not sure “how long that situation could be maintained,” adding that Hungary therefore needed “to redefine its position within the military alliance”.

“There is serious work underway to define how Hungary could exist as a NATO member without participating in NATO action outside the military alliance’s territory,” he said. Hungary’s diplomacy must resolve this question, Orbán said, adding that a “new description”, a “new definition” must be created.

Orbán said Hungarians believe that the upcoming EP election will be about war and peace. “And of course also about migration and the protection of traditional families, but the question of war now comes before all other important issues,” he added.

Orbán said that in the future this European election “could easily be regarded as the one in which the question of war and peace was decided”.

Beyond all the suffering, the war also generates profits for the military industry and arms dealers, he said.

People with insider information about the war, those involved in speculation and not in production, in other word venture capital speculators are among those supporting war, including US financier George Soros, he added.

“Some politicians can be bought, such as those on the Hungarian left, who are financed by the pro-war financiers,” he said. It was no surprise, Orbán added, that the Hungarian left was pro-war “despite the will of left wing voters”.

The prime minister said it was unclear to him why the leaders of big European countries had a pro-war stance.

The root cause of Europe’s most serious problems such as a demographic decline and migration is war, he said, adding that every war fought in Europe in the past 100-150 years “caused losses to everyone involved”.

He said “the last resort” in efforts “to compete against the pro-war circles of interest” were the people, the voters, “because Europe, after all, is a democracy”.

Orbán said he anticipated that an increasing number of people supporting peace would cast their ballots in next month’s EP elections, adding that “I would be satisfied if at least the people could stop the process of drifting into the war with their votes”. “But with that only half of the job would be done…., because the other half would have to be done later, in the United States,” he said, making reference to the presidential elections in November.

On another subject, Orbán said that the European Court had made “an outrageous decision” obliging Hungary to pay a daily fine worth around 6 million forints (EUR 15,000) to Brussels just because it refused to accept migrants.

Orbán told public radio that it was more than shocking and “absolute nonsense” that while Hungary was protecting Europe, spending several billion euros on border protection, it was “shot in the back from Brussels”.

“The only answer to that is that we must send away the European leaders who make such decisions,” Orbán said.

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