Freudian slip or post-victory blueprint? Szijjártó says Hungary must leave the EU

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó used a forum to explain why Ukraine should be kept out of the European Union. At one point, however, he appeared to suffer a slip of the tongue, saying Hungary instead of Ukraine. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had previously justified why Hungary ought to quit the EU.

Magyar: We must reinforce our place in the West

According to Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, Hungary must be kept outside the European Union. “Everyone knows that if we win, that’s how it will be,” he added at a residents’ forum in Nagykáta. News reports suggest Szijjártó’s gaffe drew no dismay from the audience or the fellow politicians on the platform with him; nor was it corrected. Péter Magyar, leader of the poll-topping Tisza Party, responded at once.

Magyar claimed Szijjártó had admitted the government wishes to take Hungary out of the European Union, when what the country needs, he argued, is to shore up its battered position in Western alliances. “There is much we can debate,” Magyar said, “but one foundation must not be questioned: Hungary’s place in the European Union and NATO.”

Will Fidesz join forces with EU foes?

János Lázár, the Minister for Construction and Transport, spoke last week at a residents’ forum in Úrhida about whether his party, Fidesz, should team up with the radical Mi Hazánk movement. “There are sovereignty advocates there too. We must consider whether we can think and work together in future—and others might join,” he said.

Mi Hazánk has campaigned since its founding for Hungary to leave the EU via referendum. Lázár sees this as the biggest obstacle to cooperation: Fidesz wishes to stay in.

Orbán and the Hungarians on a possible ‘Huxit’

As we reported, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán addressed the issue a fortnight ago on the government-friendly HírTV’s Bayer Show, outlining why Hungary should abandon the EU. The bloc is weak, he argued, capable only of lecturing those stronger than itself—who mock and despise it. He posed the question of whether membership in such a club makes sense, replying with a tentative “yes”.

A Eurobarometer survey from autumn 2025, published only in February this year, found 55 per cent of Hungarians back EU membership—below the EU average of 62 per cent. Some 46 per cent hold a positive view of the EU, against 49 per cent across Europe. Yet only 7 per cent of Hungarians deem membership outright harmful, compared with 11 per cent EU-wide, according to Privátbankár.

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