PM Orbán: Ursula von der Leyen is our employee, not our opponent

Ursula von der Leyen, the newly re-elected President of the European Commission, “is our employee, not our opponent”, as opposed to the “pro-war prime ministers representing flawed stances from Europe’s point of view”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday, adding that patriotic forces “made big gains but not a breakthrough” in the European parliamentary elections in June.

True weight lies with the European Council

Orbán said von der Leyen’s performance had been very weak in the past five years. She “has failed on the matter of the green transition and if things go on like this, she will demolish European industry,” he said.

On the issue of war, Orbán said Europe was focusing on participation on the Ukrainian side rather than on peace. Meanwhile, “migrants keep coming in,” he added.

Von der Leyen “is not our political opponent but our employee”, her job as EC president is to execute the guidelines determined by the member states’ prime ministers, he said.

“Ursula von der Leyen is paid from EU coffers, so she is dependent [on the EU]; she must do what the prime ministers say.”

The true weight of European politics lies with the European Council, he said. “The problem is not what the commission head did or did not do but what the prime ministers let her do or leave undone.”

Orbán said he had not supported von der Leyen’s re-election because he had deemed her performance weak in light of the guidelines issued by the European Council.

Patriots for Europe third largest force in the EP

Meanwhile, Orbán said “the next stage of change” was expected at national elections. Austria is holding one later this year and “many governments are teetering” in Europe, raising the possibility of early elections, and Germany will hold regional elections, he said.

“I hope that the mix of prime ministers will change and we will be able to give better instructions, as well as get better at holding [von der Leyen] to account,” he said.

“One shouldn’t see one’s own employee as an opponent,” he said. At the same time, prime ministers “representing flawed stances . and party leaders working against Hungary in the EP should be considered opponents, like [European People’s Party leader] Manfred Weber, who is known to hate Hungarians and promote war and migration,” Orbán said.

The Patriots for Europe party family is now the third largest force in the EP, Orbán said, adding it would be the second largest once it had forged alliances.

He said he hoped patriotic forces would achieve a breakthrough at upcoming elections in Austria and other countries, “which will be complemented by the US presidential election.”

“Patriots will be in the majority in the world by the end of the year,” he said. Meanwhile, Orbán said it was “a problem” that European leaders were not doing what the people wanted them to.

Working for family-friendly, anti-migration and pro-peace Europe

“People across Europe all want peace instead of war, but the left is pro-war,” the prime minister said. “People want migration to be stopped, but the left is pro-migration. The people don’t want . a family bond that is important to them — which organises life around a man, a woman and raising children — to be mocked with all kinds of other forms of cohabitation being raised to the same level, let’s call it gender, but the left is pro-gender.”

Orbán said people wanted national sovereignty and national pride, which the left had never wanted and even considered “dangerous”.

He said there was a clear right-wing programme and vision offered by the newly-established political group of patriots which envisioned and was working for a “family-friendly, anti-migration and pro-peace Europe of nations led by proud patriots”.

Orbán also said that improving European competitiveness is a central topic of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. Hungary will put forward a competitiveness pact at the European Council meeting in Budapest on 8 November, which it has already discussed with France, Italy and Germany, Orbán said.

“Competitiveness is important, it’s about how we live: if we’re competitive we’re well off, if we’re not competitive then we’re badly off,” he said.

The matter is closely connected to the war, he said. “Improving competitiveness is extremely difficult as long as enormous amounts of money flow into funding the war in Ukraine.”

Peace-time budget on the horizon?

Orbán said the funding for Ukraine had well exceeded 100 billion forints (EUR 256m), “syphoning funding from European farmers, e-transition and road, bridge and railway development”.

Therefore, standing up for peace is equivalent to standing up and working for Hungary, he said.

In a time of peace, Hungary would immediately find itself in another economic situation, and more possibilities could be opened up for people, he said. As long as the war is ongoing, Hungary’s budget must remain a “war budget”. “Once we can broker peace, we can move on to a peace-time budget.”