The election strengthened the government, says Hungarian minister

Sunday’s local and European parliamentary elections have strengthened the government and given it a strong mandate to continue “spreading the message of peace” in international relations, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office told a regular press briefing on Thursday.

Without a boost to its pro-peace stance, the government “would have been unable to keep Hungary out of NATO’s military mission in Ukraine,” Gergely Gulyás said.

The “fair” agreement between Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg earlier this week, which maintained Hungarian interests, was partly thanks to the election results, Gulyás said.

“Hungarian money, weapons or soldiers will not participate in the NATO mission in Ukraine,” Gulyás said, adding that the government saw the mission as extremely dangerous that could end in the war spreading to larger areas, “in Hungary’s immediate neighbourhood”.

Hungary continues to provide asylum to those fleeing the war, he added.

Speaking about the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union to fine Hungary 200 million euros for not complying with EU legislations on asylum and on returning illegal immigrants to their home countries, Gulyás called the ruling “outrageous, unfair and unacceptable”.

The minister said the ruling contradicted EU law, was incompatible with Hungary’s constitution and penalised the country which had rejected illegal migration from the beginning, protecting its own and Europe’s external borders.

This ruling “could never have been passed by a normal court,” he added.

Gulyás noted that the ruling went beyond the original claim of the complainant. The European Commission requested a condemnation of 7 million euros and a daily fine of 6 million euros until compliance, whereas the court ordered Hungary to pay a lump sum of 200 million euros and a daily fine of 1 million euros, that is seventy times the fine originally requested.

The ruling goes completely against everything we think about European law, the Hungarian constitution, the protection of external borders and effective action against migration, Gulyás said.

Government spokeswoman Eszter Vitalyos said that over the past two weeks, 310 billion forints (EUR 780m) worth of investments, supported with government funds, were opened in Hungary.

Out of 84 large projects, 125 billion forints were spent on public road infrastructure development, including 116 billion forints on a bridge spanning the Danube between Kalocsa and Paks and 2.5 billion forints for an M1 motorway exit at Paty.

Regarding health care, she highlighted Pecs University’s new emergency medical centre for children which received 2.7 billion forints in government support.

A total of 14 billion forints worth of investments were carried out in culture and public education, including 12 billion forints for the revamp of a Tisza castle in Geszt.

She added that a tourism development project has been completed in the Szolnok castle and a 700 metre long bridge dubbed the bridge of national cohesion was opened in Satoraljaujhely.

Company development investments included a 115 billion forint grant to a capacity expansion at an electric parts plant in Szolnok, in central Hungary, a 80 billion forint expansion of energy drink maker Hell’s plant in Szikszó, Vitalyos said. Other grants supported family-friendly and education investments at a pilgrimage site in Matraverebely, in northern Hungary, in Miskolc, Karcag and other localities.

A home renovation programme is also in the works, with the tender opening for the public in July, she said.

Fielding a question on the recount of the votes cast on the Budapest mayor candidates on Sunday, Gulyás said it was in everyone’s interest with such a close race that the result should be legitimate and beyond doubt. He said he expected the recount to clearly decide who won the election.

Gulyás said there were many ways of looking at the election results. Compared to the previous election, the governing parties won less in percentage terms but that came after two challenging years of war, an energy crisis and economic difficulties. After two years like this, “we achieved the best result in Europe and received more votes than ever in a European parliamentary election”, indeed, more than the parties that finished in second, third and fourth places combined, he added.

On the opposition Momentum party’s election result, he said it was good news that a party that “proudly and openly betrayed its country” did not clear the 5 percent parliamentary threshold. On the president of DK, he said Fidesz had been working since 2004 to ensure that Ferenc Gyurcsany plays a decreasing role on the left and his position has finally weakened.

Assessing the result of the European parliamentary election, Gulyás said that on the whole, he could see a shift to the right, but warned that the sovereigntist forces had not yet gained a majority. He said it would be desirable if the sovereigntists could form a party group within the European Parliament, but added that was still questionable.

He said it would become clear in a few weeks which party group Fidesz could join in the European Parliament.

Among the European Conservatives and Reformers, the majority would welcome Fidesz, he said, noting that they had wanted Fidesz to join already after it left the European People’s Party. “It was our decision to try to create a larger right-wing alliance and this still remains our goal but it may not be successful,” he said.

On the election result of the party of French president Emmanuel Macron, Gulyás said that those with the most pro-war position suffered the biggest defeat. It seems the French public could not identify with the plan of sending French soldiers to Ukraine, he said.

Gulyás said the spotlight would come off Hungary if “we joined the supporters of war, opened our borders to migration and were willing to hold gender briefings in kindergartens,” but the government is not willing to do these.

Fielding a question on possible cooperation between Fidesz and Germany’s AfD, he said such a possibility had not even been suggested.

On the European People’s Party, he cited the EPP’s “pro-war position” as the main criticism. It seems the EPP evaluates the election result as a success, partly rightfully so, he said, adding that the EPP was looking for cooperation with the left and the liberals.

Gulyás said it was inconceivable that the Tisza Party could sit in the same party group, the EPP, with KDNP, the junior member of the governing Fidesz-KDNP alliance, in the European Parliament. He said this could happen in two ways: either Tisza is not accepted by the EPP or KDNP leaves the group.

He emphasised that Fidesz had no plans to cooperate with Tisza in the Budapest City Council.

On the composition of the City Council and the ability to obtain the majority necessary for passing the budget, for example, he said there were many parties that won enough votes to send deputies into the City Council and some of these had loose party affiliations, so it could be expected that there could still be many changes in the assembly and it would not be impossible at all to obtain a majority for a budget.