Hungary’s Szijjártó slams EU-US deal as ‘KO for von der Leyen’, calls it a disaster for Europe
The European Commission has “dealt another hard blow” to the continent’s economy through the recent EU-US tariffs agreement, which was “a huge fiasco for (EC President) Ursula von der Leyen”, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said in a panel discussion at the fifth Mathias Corvinus Collegium festival in Esztergom, north of Budapest, on Friday.
The foreign ministry quoted Szijjártó as referring to the EU-US deal as “fantastic for the American side”, adding that the agreement was evidence of von der Leyen’s being “unfit” for her position. He compared the talks between US President Donald Trump and von der Leyen as a “fight between a super heavyweight and a lightweight boxer”, suggesting that the latter had been “knocked out”.
Szijjártó said the agreement was equal to “another very hard blow below the belt” to the European economy, comparable “to the Covid vaccines ordered in text messages, which never arrived, and to the innumerable weapons and funds sent to Ukraine, as well as to the tariffs against Chinese electric car makers.”
Meanwhile, Szijjártó said that greater changes could only be expected in Europe “when several more countries have patriotic governments”. “In many countries of Europe a patriotic party won the election such as in Austria or the Netherlands, or they were in the forefront with outstanding support as in Germany or Portugal,” Szijjártó said, but suggested that those parties had been “pushed aside” and “the second, third, fourth parties formed a coalition government”.
Concerning the war in Ukraine, Szijjártó said that the previous US administration “passed a number of measures between the failed presidential election and the inauguration of Donald Trump that made it extremely hard to make peace” while the US’ European allies “also work to undermine peace efforts”.
He noted Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s “peace mission” last summer and the “European attacks against the Hungarian government ” that followed, while, he added, “the then critics are now talking about those very goals” of a ceasefire and peace talks. “Western Europeans have an interest in continuing the war,” the minister added, and argued that “while the war goes on, they can dodge responsibility for their ill-advised, explicitly harmful Ukraine strategy of recent years.”
Szijjártó said it was “hardly conceivable” that Ukraine could now strike a better deal than three and a half years ago, because “a large part of the country is under Russian control.”
Concerning Ukraine’s possible NATO entry, Szijjártó said that “the Ukrainians were disgustingly deceived … made to believe that they could join, but the new US administration has made it clear that it cannot happen.”
On the subject of Ukraine’s EU accession, which would require a unanimous decision, Szijjártó confirmed that “there could be no such situation in which a patriotic Hungarian government, under Orban’s leadership, would consent to Ukraine’s forced, fast-track EU entry.”
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