Putin likes this: PM Orbán says sending Western troops to Ukraine staggering idea
Brussels “is caught up in a spiral of war”, and the main question at the European parliamentary elections will be whether someone has a pro-peace or pro-war stance, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview on Friday.
War psychosis in Brussels
Previously in European political battles, the main categories were between the right and left, globalists and sovereigntist forces, but recently a new dimension has opened up, and instead of party affiliations, what matters is whether someone is pro-peace or pro-war, Orbán said in the interview held in the Brussels Public Media Centre.
It would be best if Hungary and the other European countries sent as many pro-peace politicians to the EP and as few pro-war politicians as possible, he said.
The future of left-right cooperation, and who would be stronger, were also worth discussing “but what’s most important is stopping the war psychosis”, he added.
“There is a war atmosphere, war rhetoric and the logic of war” in Brussels, he said.
EU leaders talk as if they were fighting their own war against Russia, “unlike us, who, while not indifferent to human tragedy, are not a warring side”, Orbán said.
He said “distance” was needed, and “calm” was missing in Brussels. Brussels, he added, was fighting its own war against Russia on Ukraine’s side.
“They are at war, and they talk about the need to defeat Russia,” the prime minister said, adding that “they are taking on more and more to achieve that goal”.
Proposals to send Western troops
At first, they only talked about sending helmets to Ukraine, then it came to tanks and aircraft, “and now they’re talking about proposals to send western European soldiers to be stationed in Ukrainian territory”, he said, adding that no decision had been made yet about where and for what purpose, but the preparations were under way.
“We must be careful not to get sucked into the war psychosis and lose the ability to pursue the right direction based on Hungarian national interests,” he said.
Orbán said that 2-3 months ago what had been unimaginable had since become a simple everyday event. He noted that whereas once the Germans talked only about sending helmets, they were now discussing giving a missile system to Ukraine that would enable them to reach targets as far as Moscow.
The prime minister said he was a supporter of reasonable disputes but it was now necessary “to put our foot down” and demand ceasefire and peace talks because otherwise “they will suck us in”.
Hungarian left wing getting fed from America, Brussels
He also said that even in Hungary there was no consensus about the issue, because whereas the government maintained a sober and pro-peace attitude, the left wing was pro-war. The “umbilical cord”, the “alimentary canal” of the Hungarian left wing “are in Brussels and in America”, he said. “They are getting fed from there … they pay them from there, and this is why they represent the pro-war position”, he added.
Orbán said he was certain that “Hungary would be deep in the conflict currently spreading between western European countries and Russia” were it not for its national, right-wing government.
He warned that the first world war also started as a local conflict which then expanded.
Meanwhile, Orbán said Brussels was captive to George Soros’s network, and the Soros network was an integral part of European institutions. The Soros network “is so well established” that European institutions finance their operations from it, he added.
He said the European Commission, the European Parliament and “a fair number of prime ministers are clearly backed by Soros”. The Soros network “built up over the last 30 years” hampers the representation of the opinion of Europeans, the prime minister said.
Ukrainian grain import
Regarding Ukrainian grain, Orbán said that although Hungary generally supports trade, investment and economic cooperation, it rejects Ukrainian grain imports to Europe as Brussels had set bureaucratic and rigid rules for European farmers while “there are no such regulations in place in Ukraine”, giving the country “a big competitive advantage”.
Hungary, he said, was among 6-7 European countries that produced more food than they consumed, and customers in western Europe were buying cheap Ukrainian grain instead of Hungarian farmers’ produce. “We’re making strenuous efforts to find markets for the Hungarian stocks before the next harvest,” he said, slamming Brussels for “turning a blind eye” to this problem.
“Brussels is in the heat of war. Ukraine is more important for them than the European farmers,” said Orbán, insisting that Brussels should either ban Ukrainian grain imports or employ the same loose regulations to Hungarian farmers as it applies to Ukraine.
The prime minister said that “although the European Union has been set up with the aim of ensuring peace and wellbeing”, Europe was now pervaded “by war and poor-being”.
PM Orbán: People are basically negative towards Brussels bureaucrats
“People are basically negative towards Brussels bureaucrats. Not towards the European Union, because everybody supports the ideal of cooperation… The problem is with Brussels bureaucrats.”
The prime minster was also asked about his ruling Fidesz party’s plans regarding Budapest after the party’s Budapest chapter named Alexandra Szentkiralyi, a government spokesperson, as their candidate for Budapest mayor in the upcoming municipal election.
Orbán, referring to the leader of the Democratic Coalition, Ferenc Gyurcsány, called for “Gyurcsány’s people” to be frozen out of circles influencing the capital’s administration.
“The people who ruined the country before 2010 are all doing business in the capital, and their politics is the same as during their administration,” he said.
“Those who bankrupted Hungary are now bankrupting the capital,” Orbán said, adding that this was why “the coffers are empty, even though Budapest was once the richest city in Hungary”.
In the municipal elections held in June, hopefully a mayor would be elected who could prevent the capital’s complete bankruptcy, he added.
Orbán said Budapest was important for him and he was keen to address issues important for the city’s residents. “But today there is no more important question for them than whether the Hungarian left can achieve that Brussels takes away part of the high wages given to kindergarten and school teachers.”
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