PM Orbán: Europe much stronger than Russia, we have nothing to be afraid of

The job of European diplomacy would have been stopping the war in Ukraine, but Brussels has become “irrelevant” by deciding not to negotiate, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told Italian commercial television channel ReteQuattro on Tuesday, during a two-day visit to Rome.

Reform needed in Brussels, says Orbán

Asked about his meeting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and their shared positions and disagreements, Orbán said that though there were differences, they agreed on several key issues, including the view that the “Brussels power centre” was in need of reform.

Orbán said Brussels had “failed” on important issues affecting the everyday lives of Europeans, such as economic policy, the green transition, war and sanctions. He mentioned energy prices, which, he noted, were a key issue for Hungary.

He said the “Brussels bureaucrats” had made a “serious mistake”, with, among other things, the green transition, which he said was going against the industrial sector instead of cooperating with it. “This is harmful; we should stop here and reverse course,” he said.

As regards his disagreements with Meloni, Orbán noted that Hungary borders Ukraine, so its view on the war was different from Italy’s. Asked why he considered the European Union irrelevant, Orbán said Europe had failed to prevent the war in Ukraine.

Trump could have prevented the invasion

The job of European diplomacy would have been stopping the war, Orbán said. If Donald Trump had been the president of the United States at the time, rather than Joe Biden, the war would not have happened, he said, adding that Europe should still have done more, “and even now it isn’t”. He said another problem was that after the start of the war, Europe had shut down all diplomatic channels with Russia, making it impossible to stop the conflict.

Orbán said Brussels was becoming irrelevant by deciding not to negotiate. As a result, he said, the United States and Russia were not only negotiating about Ukraine, but also about the future of Europe’s defense structure, “exactly as it happened after the second world war”.