PM Orbán: Ukraine’s EU accession economic suicide for Europe

Ukraine’s accession to the European Union would be tantamount to “economic suicide” for Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio on Friday. Orbán also said that if Brussels succeeded in banning Russian energy imports, “Hungarian families will soon be paying twice as much for gas and electricity”.

Meanwhile, asked about the election of Pope Leo XIV, Orbán said the new pontiff was not North American in his view. Rather, he came from Peru, and would “probably carry on where Pope Francis left off”. “I don’t expect any big changes,” he added.

Congregations needed a spiritual leader and “the modern world is trying to replace this with psychologists”. What was needed was “not someone to treat us, but for there to be spiritual leaders.”

Catholics, he added, saw the Holy Father in this way. At the same time, for the congregation of the Reformed Church it was not a matter of indifference who the Pope was as “a solid moral and faith-based foothold” was needed “in the current turbulent world, when Christian values are under constant attack.”

Returning to the question of Ukraine’s EU accession, the prime minister said Hungary did not support it, let alone fast-tracking it.

He said Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico also thought that admitting Ukraine to the bloc would be “economic suicide”.

• PM Orbán and Slovak Socialist PM Fico discuss friendship, migration, and gas supply

Regarding the war in Ukraine, he said European leaders and the European People’s Party in particular wanted war, to uphold sanctions and phase out Russian energy totally, “and then whatever happens to the European economy is all the same”.

Hungary, on the other hand, was working for peace, Orbán said, adding that if there was peace sanctions could be scrapped, which would lead to cheaper energy and economic momentum, ultimately making things easier for families.

He said this issue exacerbated domestic political disputes because parties like the opposition Democratic Coalition and Tisza followed the decisions of European leaders, while the “nationally minded parties” like the ruling parties opposed them.

Meanwhile, the government, he said, had gone to great efforts to make sure Hungarian families pay among the cheapest energy prices in Europe, notwithstanding the cost of sanctions against Russian energy.

Heating a typical Hungarian house costs around 260,000-280,000 forints as against 480,000 forints in Slovakia and around up to 900,000 in Poland, he said.

Hungary, he added, had bought cheap energy from Russia but a ban would mean paying 600-800 billion forints more for energy purchased from abroad. This was about the same amount the government currently spends on ensuring cheap household energy bills, he added.

Orbán said Hungary and he personally faced a serious fight in Brussels to prevent Hungarian households from paying twice as much for their bills. Saying he needed “strength” for this fight, he called on Hungarians to help the government protect low utility bills and participate in the Voks 2025 vote.

Only the right-wing opposition Our Homeland Movement and the ruling Fidesz-led alliance could be counted on “to resist this Brussels decision”, while the opposition DK and the Tisza Party supported it. He said allies and legal preparations were needed as Brussels planned to bypass a previous decision based on unanimity and decide on the issue with a qualified majority.

Orbán went on to say that members of the European People’s Party must toe the EPP party line, and this meant following its diktats on “the war, Ukraine’s accession to the EU, migration and gender”.

He said that all this was in response to the fact that this week the Tisza Party leader had written an open letter to the EPP leader saying that he did not agree with Ukraine’s fast-tracked EU accession. It was hard to take him seriously when he had compromised his credibility, he said, explaining that the Tisza Party leader first claimed that “he would lift his immunity” as an MEP but was now “sitting in Brussels” and refusing to suspend it in connection with crimes committed in Hungary.

Saying that he knew the EPP inside out from when Fidesz was a member, he said members of the EPP were expected to toe the line.

Orbán said the EPP had made clear that it wanted a change of government in Hungary and would help those who promoted the policies of Brussels and the EPP. This meant supporting the war, accepting Ukraine into the EU, accepting migration, and accepting “the position of the European mainstream on gender issues”, he said. “This is what those in the EPP represent, regardless of what they say or write,” he added.

The prime minister also commented on Democratic Coalition leader Ferenc Gyurcsány’s announcement that he is retiring from public life.

Orbán said DK’s “life-and-death fight” was with Tisza, not the government. “The match between DK and the government has already been decided by voters four or five times.”

The actual fight, Orbán said, was for the role of the leader of the opposition, and DK believed that their chances would be better without Gyurcsány.

The prime minister expressed his sympathies in connection with Gyurcsány and Klara Dobrev’s divorce, saying he considered it their private affair.

Meanwhile, commenting on a 2023 audio recording released by the opposition Tisza Party on Thursday, Orbán said it reflected the government’s official position.

He said the government believed that peace required strength and a military. “We need an army that is ready and able to fight for Hungary’s freedom and independence if we were to come under attack,” he said. “So it’s fighters we need, not employees in uniform.”

Orbán said the former chief of staff’s role in this “buffoonery” had been “far more disturbing”.

He noted the release of reports on Thursday revealing the real reasons why Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi — who has taken up a role in the opposition Tisza Party — had been relieved of his post. “I didn’t feel that the Hungarian army was safe, because it seemed that the leadership was pro-Ukraine instead of being pro-Hungary,” the prime minister said.

“This is a mistake, and it’s not something that’s decided by the military leaders, but by the political leadership responsible for governing the country,” Orbán said. “And our political decision, based on the appropriate analyses, is that supporting Ukraine in this war and later in the European accession process is against Hungary’s interests.”

As regards Ruszin-Szendi, Orbán said that if a general is discovered to have spent public money on a liposuction at the Honved military hospital for cosmetic reasons, “they should disappear because this is indefensible”. “Yet he steps into the middle of political life and attacks the political leadership’s … military policy which serves to protect national interests,” he added.

The prime minister said the political debate in Hungary today was about whether the government in 2026 would be Ukraine-friendly or Hungary-friendly and whether Hungary’s money would be given to Ukraine, noting that this would also have to be addressed by the public budget.

“Our financial options are completely different if Brussels sends Hungarians’ money to Ukraine — or requires us to send money to Ukraine from Budapest — and completely different if we can prevent this,” the prime minister said.

Orbán said the 2026 draft budget assumes that Hungary will have a nationally-minded government next year which will send neither money nor weapons to Ukraine and will protect Hungarian interests when it comes to the European Union’s financial support for Ukraine as well.

He noted that the budget allocates 4,800 billion forints for family policy goals, 800 billion for keeping utility bills low, 7,700 billion forints for pensions and 450 billion for a bonus for Hungarian troops. Also, 5,050 billion forints is being spent on expanding the scheme to set up 100 new factories to 150 manufacturing bases, the health-care budget is being increased by 280 billion forints to 4,000 billion, and the government is also spending more on education, he said, adding that next year’s was a “optimistic, anti-war and ambitious” budget.

Concerning the markup caps on household products, Orbán said Hungary had “suffered a huge shock from wartime inflation”. “This is what we’re struggling with now and trying to drag prices back down because the price increases seen in several areas are unjustified,” he said, adding that Hungarian families were being “robbed”.

“This cannot be allowed, and the government is there to protect the people,” he said.

Orbán said the markup caps appeared to be working for food products, but families were also were also paying too much for household products. He noted that the government has decided to mandate a 15 percent cap on markups on more than 1,000 household products in 30 categories, adding he hoped that this will start to bring prices down.