Czech prime minister outraged on Orbán’s keynote speech

The opposition parties have slammed the prime minister’s keynote speech at the summer university in Baile Tusnad, in central Romania, saying it had failed to offer answers on the challenges to Hungarian interests, everyday life, and the future of the world.

Czech PM slams Orbán

Czechia is a sovereign state, and its government is protecting the interests of the nation, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Saturday, responding to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech at the Balvanyos Summer University in Baile Tusnad, in central Romania.
Responding to Orbán’s remarks on “federalists’ attack on the Visegrád Group”, Fiala said: “Czechia is a sovereign state. We decide independently what we promote, support or want to change within the European Union.” “Absurd stigmatisations will certainly not contribute to the necessary cooperation of central European countries. On the contrary, that requires mutual respect,” he said.

Just like the opposition

Commenting on the speech Viktor Orbán gave at the Bálványos summer university, Hungarian opposition party Jobbik-Conservatives accused Orbán of “governing the country motivated by a wish to keep his power and by foreign interests, rather than the Hungarian national interests.” During Orbán’s tenure, the forint sank to an all-time low, inflation of food prices skyrocketed and “the cost of living crisis continues to deepen,” the statement said. Jobbik said the party wanted to create a “normal country with normal wages and life”, and give the country a “responsible prime minister and government that would serve the interests of the Hungarian nation”.

LMP said the speech “had precious little to do with the most important challenges of the everyday lives of Hungarians”. “Contrary to Orbán’s production report”, the Hungarian economy has not become more independent but “incredibly vulnerable” in the past decade, LMP said. As a result, Hungarians feel the current crisis the most, the party said. Hungary’s plight is rooted in a “fundamentally flawed economic policy” that exposed the country to Russian energy and Western capital simultaneously, the statement said.

LMP said it was a “mistake of historic proportions … that the government should add Chinese industry to our dependencies through battery colonisationn”, as battery plant investments were “tantamount to sacrificing our future and independence for short-term political goals”.

Párbeszéd-Greens called the speech “disappointing”, saying it should have been used to “offer solutions to the biggest problems for the future of Hungary and the world: the ecological and climate crisis and related issues such as the cost of living crisis in Hungary”. “Instead of answers, it has only shown one thing: that he has no relevant thoughts about our future,” the party said. “Hungarians’ interest would be a fair, safe, green Hungary of solidarity, but Viktor Orbán and Fidesz’s politics has taken us further away from that … according to this speech, they will continue the same way, barging full-tilt ahead in history’s dead-end street,” they said.