PM Orbán suggests Ukraine has no other change but to back Trump’s peace efforts or they lose their country

“If we approved Ukraine’s accession, war would also enter the European Union, which was created as an alliance for peace,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his regular weekly radio interview on Friday.

No to Ukraine’s EU accession

“Let us not do that, let us say no to Ukraine’s EU entry,” he said. He insisted that if the accession process reached its final stages “it would be very difficult to stop”. “It is best to make things clear in the beginning and stop things from reaching a stage when the whole of Europe stands on our chest demanding Hungary’s approval,” Orbán said. “Either we stop the process now or later we won’t be able to.”

Hungarian voters have a say concerning the date of Ukraine’s accession “and we are very reluctant to say yes”, Orbán said. The head of the European Commission has announced the EU’s decision that “Ukraine must be admitted by 2030”, and “they have given instructions: all European parties that support the commission will speak the same language” pressing for Ukraine’s EU entry, Orbán said, adding, however, that “Hungary’s government opposes that”.

“The Hungarian opposition held a vote on the matter, in fact, in a rather fair way … the only power party in Brussels which asked their voters if they supported Ukraine’s accession was a Hungarian one, and fifty-plus percent said yes,” the prime minister said. This is a real dispute not only in Europe but in Hungary, too, he said.

• Orbán openly urges voters to block Ukraine’s EU accession in referendum

Accession would destroy Hungary’s economy

While one side advocates Ukraine’s accession, “there is another position … which says that fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession would destroy the Hungarian economy” and “bankrupt” the country, Orbán said. Concerning the war in Ukraine Orbán called for “putting an end to the war psychosis” in Europe. He added that he had hoped that could be done faster, and believed “there would sooner come the moment when Europe realises that there is no point in supporting Ukraine without the United States”. He insisted that Ukraine has no chance of retaining its positions “let alone regaining anything” without US support.

Ukraine has no other chance but to support US peace struggles, says Orbán

Orbán said he had thought “everybody will realise that its only option and task is to support the US president’s endeavours for peace”, but added that “it is not what is happening.” He said all EU members with the exception of Hungary and Slovakia had voted for increasing “assistance to the war”. The European Parliament has recently voted to send “further billions of military aid” to Ukraine, Orbán said, which he saw as a “serious war psychosis”, with the bloc “seeking an independent European war strategy rather than supporting America”.

The reason why Hungary could support Ukraine’s accession to the European Union was because “we must protect our achievements so far”, Orbán said.

• Péter Magyar: Orbán cabinet demanded Ukraine’s EU accession before – with FM Szijjártó’s reaction

Orbán said the EU admitted new members because it was beneficial for the existing ones, just as it had been in the case of Hungary and the other countries in the region. If admitting Ukraine to the bloc would be beneficial to Hungary, “I’d gladly say yes”, the prime minister said, adding that he was certain that this was not the case.

Hungary losing due to Ukraine

“Why should we have to lose out when we could benefit, or at the very least we could protect everything we’ve achieved so far?” he said. Orbán said the free flow of Ukrainian labour into Hungary threatened to end full employment, “the biggest achievement of the last 15 years, within one or two years”.

Ukraine’s accession, he added, would “completely reshape the financial foundations of European agriculture, leaving no money for Hungarian farmers”, which would put hundreds of thousands of families in a very difficult situation.

• HERE are our articles related to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Poor quality Ukrainian products

According to the prime minister, poor quality Ukrainian products would flood Europe, while “support for Ukraine would deplete the EU’s reserves”. In addition, he said, Hungary would become a contributor rather than a beneficiary country and would be obliged to “finance Ukraine’s EU membership”. “It is not in our own interest and we have the right to promote those interests,” he added.

Orbán slamming Tisza

Meanwhile, Orbán referred to recent remarks by Kinga Kollár, MEP of opposition Tisza, criticising her for “working each day to prevent Hungary from receiving funds due to the country”. It is “unacceptable and impossible” that “a few dozen people in Brussels are paid to thwart the efforts of 4.7 million people working in Hungary for the country’s success,” Orbán said.

Hungary is entitled to funds which it must gain access to, Orbán said, adding that the country had secured 13 billion euros of funds through “fierce political battles”, which, combined with budget resources, had been spent on raising teachers’ wages. Hungary, Orbán said, had yet to gain access to another more than 10 billion euros, adding that he was “fighting to ensure that Brussels releases these funds unconditionally”.

“Of course, Brussels says that if you let migrants in, give up child protection, shift from being pro-peace to being pro-war and fall in line, then you can easily gain access to this money,” Orbán said. “But I say not at this cost. We’d rather fight for it.”

Hungary can baulk EU decisions

He said Hungary would gain access to its EU funds “no matter what” because Hungary “has decision-making power that the European Union needs, and it cannot do without us”.

This, Orbán said, required “time and struggle”, rather than “surrender and caving in”. If someone gained access to these funds by giving in to Brussels’s demands, “they’d actually be making Hungary a colony of Brussels”. “But we won’t be a colony,” he added.

Orbán said Hungary’s opposition Tisza Party had struck a deal with European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber under which “Tisza receives support from the EPP”. He said, for example, that “funds for Hungary are suspended and worsening living conditions will help Tisza to power; in return, Tisza will do all that Brussels wants it to do.”

Migration, LGBTQ, peace in Ukraine

With Tisza in power, the prime minister said, “Hungary will no longer be migrant-free, because they will allow illegal migrants to enter; there will be no child protection because they will set LGBTQ free, and Hungary will no longer be in the peace camp, because we will join the countries supporting military operations in Ukraine.”

According to Orbán, Tisza’s programme now included the “Brussels’ requirement” of granting Ukraine a fast-track accession procedure. Orbán said that through these measures “Hungary will cease to be an independent state for a long time to come”. He said those who were familiar with Hungarian history knew that Hungary could only be successful politically if it is independent.

Hungary, he said, had a chance to prosper as an independent country, but if it lost its independence, “we’ll become a colony as a poor and plundered country”. “That’s the lesson of Hungarian history; I think Hungarians understand this.”

Asked to comment on the 29 percent rise in the number of guests who stayed at tourism accommodations in Hungary over the Easter holiday compared with last year, Orbán said this meant that many Hungarians had the money to spend Easter with their family at a tourism accommodation and that there are some 400,000 Hungarian families making their living in tourism.

Pope Francis

Meanwhile, praising the late Pope Francis, Orbán said that “in times of war the greatest legacy the belligerents, and European, Western or even the whole human civilisation could receive is peace itself.”

“Pope Francis was a man of peace, mild and imperturbably brave,” the prime minister said.

In the past three years, standing for peace had meant “being attacked daily, being stigmatised and persecuted”, he said, adding that “the Holy Father was kept under continuous fire by the pro-war propaganda network, trying to make him give up his pro-peace position, but he would not.”

“For us Hungarians this was especially important because … until the victory of [US President] Donald Trump there had been just two of us consistently promoting peace: Hungary and the Vatican. If you are alone — and we have always been alone in the European Council — any friendship or support becomes more important,” Orbán said, adding that the pope had “constantly called on Hungary to bravely stand for peace, and his support gave supernatural significance to truth, to peace, the cause we Hungarians promoted.”

Orbán said it was “unprecedented” for a pope to visit Hungarians three times as Pope Francis had done, twice in Hungary, and once in Sumuleu Ciuc (Csiksomlyó), in central Romania. He said the pope had “made no secret of the fact” that there had been personal reasons for this. He noted that in Argentina, Francis had worked with Hungarian nuns and a Hungarian community of faithfuls, which had made him join those who thought of Hungarians as good people. Orbán said that at the time of his meeting with the pope, he had felt that Pope Francis was sympathetic to the Hungarian nation. “He was an Argentinian who liked Hungarians,” Orbán added.

Hungarian Catholic Church plays key role

The prime minister said the Hungarian Catholic Church played a key role in Hungarian society, noting that it runs schools, kindergartens, vocational training institutions and a university. It helps care for the elderly and the needy, and helps promote the integration of the Roma community, he added.

Orbán said he was “excited” to follow developments in the Vatican over the coming period, noting that the matter of who heads the Catholic Church had an impact on Hungary.

Below, you may check out the interview: