PM Orbán: Hungary’s aims in the American-Chinese conflict in line with the Americans’

As a friend of the new president of the United States, Hungary has a huge and unprecedented economic opportunity, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a weekly interview with public radio on Friday.

13th month pension in Hungary remains

The prime minister said there was a direct link between major changes in the world and the finances of Hungarian families as well as the economic outlook for the next few years.

“Things inconcievable a few months ago will become possible next year,” Orbán said. Referring to the government’s Demján Sándor Programme, he said it was “unprecedented assistance” to small companies, and it was directly linked to opportunities in global politics. International developments have also created opportunities for cheaper housing and will allow for increasing the purchasing power of wages and a continued 13th month pension programme, he said. “All those will be possible because … we understood global political developments correctly and made preparations accordingly,” he added.

Orbán: “war our greatest problem”

Orbán said the war in Ukraine was “our greatest problem” and insisted that without the war “inflation would not have run so high” and energy prices “would not be where they are”, adding that without the EU sanctions against Russia the European economies would be in a much better state.

Had the Democrats won the US elections, Hungary should have needed to prepare a “war budget” next year and would have spent “not only two percent of GDP but three or four … on military purposes”. The Hungarian government, however, “had known that if Donald Trump wins they could prepare a peace budget,” Orbán said. That is why, he said, the government had requested from parliament to wait with tabling the draft budget for the US election to take place, “to see if 2025 would be a peace or a war year, and submit a budget draft accordingly”.

Talking about economic neutraliy and “a new economic policy adapting to these changes,” Orbán said that Hungary’s 21-point action plan would bring positive changes to people’s everyday lives.

Hungary’s aims in line with the Americans

Orbán acknowledged debate over the “American-Chinese matter”, but said Hungary’s aims were really in line with the Americans’.

Donald Trump and the Americans want to do good business with the Chinese, and we don’t want to do any differently, just reach good agreements, he added.

“Everybody wants that, so it isn’t necessary to take one or the other disputing side. Why not take our own side?” Orban asked. “We have our own Hungarian interests, the Hungarian people are important for us, and we have to do what is right for those interests,” he said, adding that was how Hungary needed to politicise in both the West and the East.

Orbán insisted that great achievements and devopment, and “high quality life based on our own performance” required a commitment to a Hungarian identity and Hungarian interests “to guide us through the political universe”. While “some say we are too small”, Orbán said “we are not small, this is a great nation”, adding that he had seen successful countries of a similar size to Hungary that “cleverly made friends in the world and then turned it into economic gains”.

Trump’s victory is “such a great win that it is visible not only from the Moon but from Mars,” Orbán said. He went on to say that if Trump had won the election in 2020 “these nightmares two years would not have happened; there would have been no war because America would have had a strong leader to make the necessary deals in time.” “That did not happen and we have been paying a terrible price for the past two years; Europeans, with one or two exceptions such as Slovakia or the Vatican, have supported that bad thing,” he said.

Trump seeking peace

Orbán said that Donald Trump, the next US president was “obviously seeking peace rather than war, anti-migration policies rather than migration and family protection rather than gender.” Trump’s policies will “make a change in the world and us Europeans will have to react,” he added.

Concerning the war in Ukraine, Orbán said “military defeat” was “obvious”, and said the US “will get out of this war rather than encourage it”.

“They say a lot of things about Donald Trump, but nobody questions that he doesn’t start wars. He hates war, he’s a real businessman,” Orbán said.

“Europe alone will not be able to finance this war … there are some that would want to do so, but there is an increasing number of those that used to be loud and now silent, and those that cautiously call for adapting to the new situation,” Orbán said.