Orbán in Romania: Time to give nation states primacy

Baile Tusnad, Romania, July 23 (MTI) – All types of political initiative and action that take power away from the nation state must be stopped, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a keynote address on Saturday.

Speaking at the 27th Baile Tusnad (Tusnádfürdő) summer university in central Romania, Orbán said that the suppression of national sovereignty in favour of European powers is one of the biggest dangers in today’s Europe.

The prime minister said that it is time to abandon false self-assessments. Britain’s decision to withdraw from the European Union has put a full stop at the end of an era in which the bloc had been a global player. The EU is now a regional player; in a positive-case scenario it will be capable of influencing events taking place in its vicinity, but otherwise it will gradually lose even this ability, he said.

It is time to stop idealising Europe, Orbán said, adding that Europe’s leadership had failed. They are incapable of protecting their own citizens or their own external borders, he said.

Referring to yesterday’s tragic events in Munich, Orbán said, “We have to preoccupy ourselves more and more and increasingly forcefully with security matters.”

Orbán said he could not have put it better than the Republican presidential nominee, Donald Trump, when he identified what kind of steps are needed to be taken in the fight against terrorism. He said that national security agencies in Europe must cooperate and undertake to create the best possible secret-services system in the world.

In a Q and A, Orbán said that NATO membership was “a good thing” and brought security for Hungarians, and from the point of view of providing a security umbrella for central and eastern Europe, it was vital. At the same time, as the British step away from the EU, the military strength of the bloc will drastically weaken, he said. “We cannot remain militarily in this vulnerable position.” For this reason a European armed forces should be established, providing a “genuine joint force, with real joint interests, a common language and a common structure”. National budgets should be reconsidered, and military industry must be incorporated into the economic-policy thinking.

Orbán said the “export of democracy” must be stopped. “If we continue to put the export of democracy to the forefront in place of stability in regions where the success of this outcome is extremely doubtful, then we will not build democracy but we will cause instability,” Orbán said.