PM Orbán: Ukraine not sovereign, cannot join the EU
“We will not allow Hungarian people to be made to pay the price of war! That’s why we say no to Ukraine’s European Union accession,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Saturday.
In a video featuring a detail of an interview published on Thursday, Orbán said that EU leaders had announced that they wanted Ukraine to become a member of the EU by 2030. “This must be prevented,” he said, adding that “it can be done now but not later”. Commenting on a referendum initiated by the government in connection with Ukraine, Orbán said all Hungarian citizens were being given the chance “to decide on the matter”.
“They want to integrate a country that is not sovereign. We do not know where the eastern borders of this country are and how big its territory is,” he said. “We do not know the size of its population. It cannot maintain itself. It is maintained by the US and us,” he added. Orbán said that at the same time, “Ukraine demands us, actually the EU, to undertake responsibility for long decades to support a Ukraine army of one million soldiers from Europeans’ money”.
Here is the full interview:
’Tisza, opposition have said yes to fast-tracking Ukraine’s EU membership’, Budapest Fidesz leader says
The entire opposition, with the Tisza Party at the helm, has said yes to fast-tracking Ukraine’s admission to the European Union, Alexandra Szentkirályi, the head of ruling Fidesz’s Budapest chapter, said on Thursday, noting the start of the referendum on Ukraine’s EU membership. The war in Ukraine has already cost Hungarian families 2.5 million forints (EUR 6,100) each, Szentkirályi said in a video she posted on social media.
Szentkirályi said Ukraine’s EU membership would “reduce Hungarian wages, ruin the agriculture and threaten our security”, yet the country’s fast-tracked accession was a “cornerstone” of the Tisza Party’s platform. She urged the public to take part in the government’s referendum on the matter.
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