BREAKING NEWS – Orbán: Hungarian government declares state of emergency

The government is declaring a state of emergency in view of the armed conflict in a neighbouring country, starting from midnight on Tuesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a video posted on Facebook.

Speaking hours after parliament approved an amendment to the Fundamental Law determining armed conflict, war, or humanitarian disaster in a neighbouring country as causes of such a measure, Orbán said the war in Ukraine presented a constant danger to “Hungary, our physical safety, the energy supplies and financial safety of families and the economy.”

• Read more here: Hungarian parliament approves 10th amendment to constitution

“The government sworn in today has started working immediately. In view of the war in a neighbouring country, we did not waste a single second. A war nobody can see the end of yet,”

he said.

“We have seen that the war and sanctions from Brussels have brought about a great economic upheaval and drastic price rises. The world is on the brink of an economic crisis. Hungary has to stay out of this war and has to protect the financial security of families,” he said.

To do so, the government needs to be able to make decisions and act swiftly. The state of emergency, similarly to that introduced during the pandemic, will make it possible for the government to react quickly and to use “all methods at its disposal” to protect Hungary and Hungarians, he said.

“I’m going to brief you on our first decisions tomorrow,” Orban said.

Orbán: Responsible, ‘feisty’ government needed

Hungary needs a feisty, responsible government that unites the country while showing the necessary strength, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in parliament on Tuesday.

Speaking ahead of the oath-taking ceremony of his fifth government, Orban said the new cabinet’s tasks are outlined by “dangers and especially the war”.

The government will have to preserve and strengthen the physical, material and cultural security of Hungary and the Carpathian Basin, support Hungarian families, boost Hungarian companies and keep the economy on a path of growth, Orbán said.

Members of the new government were troubled with various problems, he added.

No government since 1990 has received as “great and united” a mandate as the fourth consecutive Orbán government, the prime minister said. Its members will have to “justify this trust, which was partly earned, partly given in advance,” he said.

“That will be especially taxing, as we barely left the coronavirus pandemic behind, we have a war in our neighbourhood, and Brussels has got its wires crossed, so we cannot expect help from there,” he said.

The strong mandate and the “uncertain future” has increased the government’s responsibility, he added.

The “decade of dangers, uncertainty and wars” of 2020-2030 has so far brought about a “flood of refugees, an unprecedented rise in energy and fuel prices and inflation,” Orbán said. Meanwhile, the largest geopolitical reorganisation of the 21st century is looming, along with a global energy and food crisis, he said. A destabilisation of “vulnerable countries with large populations” may bring other waves of migration and so growing challenges for the “richer part of the world, including Hungary”, he said.

All that would prove a challenge even “for a robust, eminently led European Union”. Instead, the bloc is showing “delays, confounded ideologies and irrational decisions,” he said.

“At such times, Hungary cannot afford irresponsibility, division and weakness,” he said.

Orbán said he has asked Judit Varga to continue to serve at the helm of the justice ministry.

“The justice minister will have the task of enforcing the country’s fundamental law and safeguarding constitutionality, which is why I have assigned the minister the right of veto over any proposals submitted by any other ministry,”

he said. The ministry will also be in charge of the government’s EU relations, an area of responsibility “not envied by any other minister”, Orbán said, praising Varga for being a staunch advocate of Hungary’s national interests in debates with Brussels. He said this was expected from Varga in the future as well.

• Read also: Ministers of fifth Orbán cabinet sworn in – pictures of the ministers

Introducing Sándor Pintér, who will continue to serve as interior minister, Orbán noted that he and Pinter “have served together over 16 years” during which period the minister had performed every task assigned to him with “exemplary precision”. He restored public safety, radically reduced crime, significantly repressed crimes against property and human life and renewed and rejuvenated the police force to the extent that it has “regained its honor and dignity”, Orbán said. He said that the country’s law enforcement agencies had earned longstanding merits during the coronavirus pandemic and the ongoing refugee crisis in Ukraine, adding that Hungary would continue to need these capabilities in the coming period. The prime minister also noted Pinter’s achievements in launching the fostered work scheme which had helped hundreds of thousands of unemployed people find jobs in the primary labour market, as well as in managing the restructuring of the Hungarian municipal system.

In politics, experience is the greatest asset, “it is what really matters”, the prime minister said, adding that this was why Pinter had been assigned to oversee “the most difficult areas”.

Introducing Zsolt Semjén, who will serve as minister responsible for policies for Hungarian communities abroad and policies for national minorities and church relations as well as church diplomacy, Orbán said he would be expected to “make the idea of the united Hungarian nation enshrined in the Fundamental Law a reality”. Orbán said

the co-ruling Christian Democrats formed the “intellectual-ideological” core of the government.

János Csák, who will head a new cultural and innovation ministry, will be in charge of family policy, culture, higher education, vocational training and innovation, the prime minister said. The head of the cultural and innovation ministry needs to be someone who is familiar with the business world, “doesn’t get lost in the modern maze of intellectual debates”, is disciplined but at the same time “looks for ways we can go beyond the limits of today’s reality”, Orbán said.

Turning to Mihály Varga, who will continue as finance minister,

Orbán praised his “forward-looking rigour” which “allowed Hungary to uphold the balance between growth and fiscal discipline” during the pandemic.

The same will be expected of Varga now when the war presents a new challenge to the economy, the prime minister added.

Introducing László Palkovics, the minister for technology and industry, Orbán said he will be expected to carry on with the shift started over the past few years and to develop Hungary’s energy system in a way that it meets the challenges of the new era. The ministry will be expected to address the situation created by rising consumption and prices while reducing Hungary’s harmful emissions, Orbán said.

István Nagy, the minister of agriculture, has been tasked with protecting Hungary from the effects of the looming global food crisis and further strengthening the position of Hungarian agriculture, he said.

Orbán said Tibor Navracsics, who has been appointed minister for regional development and the utilisation of EU funds, had the best chance of holding his own “between the mill wheels of Brussels bureaucrats and Hungarian MEPs”.

Introducing Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky, the new defence minister, Orbán said Hungary’s Zrínyi defence development scheme could make Hungary’s military one of the most competent in the region. The war next door “shows how irresponsible it was to have the military and defence take a back seat on the continent”, the prime minister said.

Orbán said he had tasked Antal Rogán, the head of the cabinet office, with communicating the ideas and aims behind the government’s decisions to the public.

János Lázár, who will head the new ministry of construction and investment, has been tasked with ensuring that state resources spent on investments are used efficiently, renewing construction regulations and “the protection of our built heritage”, the prime minister said.

Orbán said he expected of Márton Nagy, minister without portfolio responsible for economic development, to “help Hungary’s development with innovative economic policy decisions rooted in Hungarian logic [even if] some of them will not help him make friends.”

The European economy is in “great trouble”, and Hungary will need new, unorthodox, innovative steps if it is to develop further, he said.

“The escape from the debt trap, the change in tax policy and the price caps were such measures,” he said.

Regarding the appointment of Péter Szijjártó, who is staying on as minister of foreign affairs and trade, Orbán said he had asked him to continue to represent Hungarian interests “as inexhaustibly as we have come to expect him to”, to bolster Hungary’s relations with its allies and find new opportunities for trade and investment.

In the new cycle,

Szijjártó will also be responsible for the upgrade of the Paks nuclear plant, he said.

Gergely Gulyás, the head of the prime minister’s office, will be responsible for “strategic planning … as he will have to see the entire country, rather than just one ministry.” Gulyas will coordinate the work of individual ministries and “represent a culture of respect and cooperation, and work on techniques for that.” As the prime minister’s office “doubles as the government’s lightning rod”, Gulyas will have to also “bravely represent the government’s arguments in intellectual debates at home and abroad,” he said.

The coming years, “fraught with dangers”, will find a “strong, capable, resilient government in Hungary, with a clear vision of the future,” Orbán said.

“Go Hungary, go Hungarians,”

Orbán said.