PM Orbán dreaded losing his veto right in the European Council and the end of Russian energy imports
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Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on people to participate in the Vote 2025 referendum in an interview with public radio on Friday, emphasising that “Ukraine’s EU accession would bring dangers directly threatening our everyday lives”.
Ukraine’s EU membership is the most important issue, says Orbán
On the last day of the referendum, Orbán argued that those who so far stayed out of the vote “should now listen to the others”, more than two million people who already had their say on Ukraine’s EU membership. Orbán said this was the most important issue shaping the next few years and Hungary’s future.
He pointed out that most or all of the area-based subsidies would be lost to Hungarian farmers, and many Hungarians could lose their jobs as hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian workers could come to the country.
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If cheap Ukrainian grain was allowed in the EU, Hungarian farmers would be unable to sell their crops, or would be forced to do so at severely depressed prices, he said. Should Ukraine become an EU member, “the Hungarian government will have no means to stop hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian workers from coming to Hungary; there is a huge disparity between Hungarian and Ukrainian wages, and millions live in Ukraine who can’t find a job.”
Ugly debate awaits him in Brussels
Regarding the EU summit next week, Orbán said he anticipated it would be “an ugly affair and a big debate”. “I need two things; one of them is experience, that is in place. It’s a great advantage that Hungary’s government has been the longest in place [in the EU] and that I’m the prime minister,” Orbán said.
He said the other was “strength; the important thing is what Hungarians think. The strength of a people cannot be … circumvented or swept off the table,” he said. “If we have strength and experience, we can have results in Brussels.” He said Ukraine’s accession will be decided now. “The European Union cannot be stopped once it has started” moving in a certain direction, Orbán said . “Once the EU has started on a way, it cannot be stopped. It’s a steamroller…” he said.
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Under huge pressure
Orbán warned against “underestimating” the EU: “Things can be thwarted there if we don’t allow them to start in the first place,” he said. Already running processes “can be amended, maybe, but the steamroller will run its course. Those who think they can stop Ukraine’s EU accession later don’t know European politics, because they have never seen something like this before.”
Orbán said “all countries” had patriotic forces which rejected migration and did not want to yield competencies to Brussels, and which did not want Ukraine to join the EU; on the other hand, all countries had political forces “that support Ukraine’s accession, that suffer, accept and possibly want migration, and are willing to yield competencies to Brussels.” Since the latter are currently in power, countries with patriotic governments such as Hungary are put under pressure, he said.
“We are under huge pressure, this is the natural state of European politics: patriots and national governments on the one side and federalists, Brussels and pro-Ukraine forces on the other.”
Oil price increases
On the conflict between Iran and Israel, Orbán said that if Irán disintegrated as a result of the current war, “a significant region of the world could become ungovernable and uncontrollable.” On the consequences of the conflict, Orbán said the price of Brent oil had increased by one-fifth in a month. The war is pushing prices up, so the war is bad for Hungarians, he said. Similarly, if Hungary could not import gas from Russia, utility prices for households and businesses would also increase, to two and a half times their current level, he said.