Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has strongly criticised US Vice President Kamala Harris for her comments regarding Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. Speaking to the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Szijjártó expressed his indignation:
“First of all, this is outrageous. It’s unacceptable to speak about my Prime Minister in such a manner. It shows a complete lack of respect for him and the Hungarian people,” he said.
During an interview on Wednesday, Kamala Harris, a Democratic presidential candidate, was asked about Donald Trump’s relationships with various world leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. In response, Kamala Harris described them as:
“Dictators, autocrats, and people who could rightly be called killers.”
“We have always shown respect towards the American people and expect the same respect in return. Such statements reflect an utter lack of respect, which is unacceptable, especially between allies,” Szijjártó told RIA Novosti.
When asked whether Harris’s comments would affect Hungarian-American relations, Szijjártó warned that if she were to become the next president, it would not bode well for the future of bilateral relations.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, along with Minister Szijjártó and the rest of the Orbán government, offered their full support to Donald Trump both during and before his campaign, prompting accusations of the Hungarian government interfering in the US election. Despite this, the Orbán administration frequently cautions other countries against meddling in Hungary’s internal affairs. It is also noteworthy that while the Hungarian government deems it crucial to maintain ties with Putin due to Russia’s global influence, the Biden administration, one of the world’s most powerful governments, has repeatedly clashed with and openly criticised the US President.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced a new economic programme at a meeting of Fidesz’s parliamentary group focusing on affordable housing, a one million forint income, subsidised loans for workers and capital injections for SMEs, the daily Magyar Nemzet said on Sunday.
Orbán’sspeech, held at a closed meeting at the start of the parliamentary session in Esztergom, in northern Hungary, focused on economic policy and the new economic programme, the paper said. The meeting had been postponed from an earlier date due to the floods, the paper said.
Economic neutrality will bring a turnaround from 2025, and the goverment is working to achieve economic growth exceeding the European Union average, he said.
Orbán said the pandemic and the war in Ukraine had brought changes in the world, and the East was on the rise, while the West was declining. Brussels and the western world had responded by announcing an “economic cold war”, he said. That is harmful for Hungary, and the country is striving to stay out of the cold war, he added.
Orbán said the way to success was economic neutrality. Hungary needed an economic growth beyond the EU average, and that was only possible by maintaining neutrality, he said. That way, the government will be able to raise growth to between 3 and 6 percent, and so will steer Hungary towards stronger growth as soon as 2025, he said.
Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
The new economic policy will require an agreement between economic players, the Chamber of Commerce, interest groups and employee’s organisations, because “the government does not want to decide above their heads”, he said.
The government is also aiming to achieve a new, multi-year agreement between employers and employees on growth-linked wage hikes, he said. Such an agreement would prepare a reliable path to achieve the 1,000 euro minimum wage and the 1,000,000 forint average wage, he said.
Orbán talks about zero-interest loans
Meanwhile, the government would also like to “double the size of export-ready SMEs”, which would involve capital injections and a new action plan, to be called the Demján Sándor plan, Orbán said.
Regarding a loan programme for workers, Orbán said skilled workforce had a crucial role in the economy, besides degree holders, and so young workers would receive zero-interest loans from 2025, similarly to student loans, he said.
War-related inflation and the energy crisis have raised real estate prices in Hungary and Europe, he said. In order to make housing affordable in Hungary, “because Hungarians believe primarily in owning their apartments and houses”, the government must double the volume of housing construction and push mortgage interests below 5 percent, he said.
Assessing the political situation, Orbán said Wednesday’s European parliamentary debate had shown that “nothing has changed in Brussels”. “You can only be the good guy there if you support the continuation of war uncritically, accept Brussels’s migration policy and open the doors to LGBTQ propaganda.”
Europe had not given up the aim to “force migrants on Hungary and turn it into an uncritical supporter of war”, he said. At the same time, “they know they will never achieve that with the national government, and now they are looking for new vassals besides their old ones, then come rolling dollars and euros, they will lift their intended on their shoulder and promise him impunity,” he said.
“Promises of impunity from Brussels always come with a hefty price tag, and Brusselites like to make Hungarians pay that price,” Orbán said.
Besides the support of migration and war, Brussels also expects Hungary to scrap utility price caps and the 13th month pension, to improve the position of multinational corporations as against Hungarian companies, to raise the PIT and to introduce a property tax, Orbán said.
“I am ready to fight, we shall win,” he concluded.
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Serbian Deputy PM Vulin: assassination plot is being prepared against PM Orbán – read more HERE
The Serbian and Russian media wrote about Serbian interior minister and deputy prime minister Aleksandar Vulin’s claims about an assassination plot against PM Viktor Orbán. Vulin said the reason why a criminal group planned to kill the Hungarian prime minister was Orbán’s pro-peace stance. Meanwhile, Péter Szijjártó, Hungary’s foreign minister, has not heard about any assassination attempts.
According to Blikk, a Hungarian tabloid, Vulin talked about previous assassination attempts against Slovak PM Robert Fico and US presidential candidate Donald Trump. He also mentioned the murder of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on 19 May.
A shooter tried to bring down former president Trump in July. Photo: FB/OrbánViktor
He said that they were informed about an assassination plot against PM Orbán, which is under preparation by criminal groups. Vulin is Serbia’s interior minister, so he has the means to acquire such information.
FM Szijjártó’s answer about a possible assassination plot against Orbán
Anyway, Serbian and Russian media started to publish articles about his claims. Vulin believes the reason for the possible assassination is PM Orbán’s pro-peace stance. Before, he talked aboutan assassination plot against Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, saying that the Europol informed him about that.
Orbán and Vucic at the funeral of István Pásztor, the former leader of the Hungarians living in Serbia. Photo: FB/Viktor Orbán
Péter Szijjártó told Ria Novosty, the Russian state news agency, that he had not heard about such attempts. He added that the government, the prime minister and the country are continuously under legal, financial, and political attacks.
“Hungary has to keep up with the world’s best not only on the track and in the water, but also in preparation and in the quality of the sports facilities,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the opening of the Kovács Katalin National Kayak-Canoe Academy in Sukoró, in central Hungary, on Saturday.
“Hungarians have a special relationship with aquatic sports,” Orbánsaid. Even though Hungary is a landlocked country, water polo, swimming and kayakinghave always been the flagships of Hungarian elite sports, he said.
The prime minister praised Katalin Kovács, 31-time world champion canoe sprinter, who competed in four Olympic games and won three gold and five silver medals. He said her example showed that community and personal ambition were the two main drivers of success.
Katalin Kovács. Photo: MTI
Orbán said athletes knew that community gave them strength and endurance. Values such as trust, perseverance and camaraderie can be best learned from sports, he added.
He said the other prerequisite for a nation’s success was ambition, that we should not be satisfied with what was just good enough. These are skills that Hungary will greatly need in the period ahead, he said.
Photo: MTI
Photo: MTI
Kovács Katalin National Kayak-Canoe Academy supported by the Orbán government
The past 35 years were a fundamentally peaceful era when it was possible to achieve success with simple life strategies and slightly better than average performance, but in the future, more will be required, the prime minister said.
The interior of the academy. Photo: MTI
Hungary will need people who can always “raise the bar,” Orbán said. This is why the Hungarian government invests in sports and creates sports academies such as the Kovács Katalin National Kayak-Canoe Academy, Orbán said.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said there was “little chance” of addressing the decline in competitiveness at the European Union level and the focus should be on the national level in a weekly interview with public radio on Friday. He believes his plan would give a “big boost” to the Hungarian economy.
“Our positions are very far apart, which is why Hungary has to focus on itself, not Europe,” Orbán said on Kossuth Rádió. He added that the response to Hungary’s presentation of its programme for the presidency of the Council of the European Union in the European Parliament during the week had been a “diversion” and the government had weighed matters related to the Hungarian economy for weeks.
The government has drafted a big action plan that will give new impetus to the Hungarian economy, he said. The economic cabinet discussed the plan, which includes measures supporting affordable housing, higher wages and advancing SMES, on Thursday, he added.
He said the plan would give a “big boost” to the Hungarian economy, adding that the housing measures would produce a “housing boom”. He said those measures included dormitory construction and steps to make affordable housing available to young Hungarians, including rental constructions. The government will support home construction in Hungary’s smallest settlements in the framework of the Hungarian Village programme, while eliminating bureaucratic obstacles to using savings for home purchases, he added.
Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
HUF 1m/month wage realistic
He said talks between employers and unions on the minimum wage were “progressing well” and an agreement on the scale of the minimum wage increase was within reach. He said that aiming to boost the average wage in Hungary to HUF 1m a month was “not unrealistic”.
He affirmed government plans to roll out credit for young blue collar workers similar to student loans.
He said assistance for SMES, in the framework of a programme named after the late business magnate Sandor Demjan, would include access to equity financing and preferential credit and aimed to make SMEs more stable and bigger.
Orbánsaid financing for the measures would have to come from Hungary’s own economic growth, while fiscal deficit and state debt levels continued to decline.
Unilever expansion in 2023. Photo: FB/Szijjártó
He said September consumption data was “encouraging”, along with real wage growth of close to 10pc, “unmatched in Europe”. He said the debate over sluggish consumption, even amid high real wage growth, was “not healthy”, as it was up to Hungarians to decide what they wanted to do with their money.
He said the real problem was the slowdown in the European automotive industry, which impacted Hungary as an “automotive industry giant” and home to plants of all three premium German car makers.
We will accept from the West and from the East only that which benefits Hungarians
“It doesn’t matter what Europe says, we will stick to our policy of economic neutrality. We will accept from the West and from the East only that which benefits Hungarians, while we will reject that which is against our interests,” he added.
Orbán said that policy could boost GDP growth to 3-6pc, with tangible results already in 2025. He put GDP growth in the last two quarters of 2024 “somewhere between 1 and 2 percent”, but said there would be a “huge pickup” starting in the first half of 2025. Hungary’s long-term economic outlook is “bright”, he added.
Orbán said adapting to global changes had made a new Hungarian economic policy necessary, adding that a new pact on that policy had to be made with Hungarians.
He said the economy minister had presented the “trends, numbers and general concept” for the plan on Thursday. A government resolution will assign tasks related to the policy, and concrete measures could be unveiled in 2-3 weeks, he added.
The government needs to consult with interest groups, economic players and “ultimately with the people” on those measures, he said.
Minister presses for improved EU competitiveness at SME level
The European Union’s competitiveness needs to be strengthened at the SME level, too, Justice Minister Bence Tuzson said ahead of a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Friday. Tuzson noted that strengthening competitiveness was a priority of Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the EU. He said ministers at the meeting would discuss ways to streamline EU regulations to make them more transparent for SMEs. Priorities of the Hungarian presidency also include countering racism and anti-Semitism, he said, adding that the “firmest steps possible” had to be taken.
Also on the agenda of the meeting are EU drugs policy and the fight against organised crime, he said. Following the meeting, at a joint press conference with Didier Reynders, the European commissioner for justice, Tuzson said the ministers had weighed ways the EU’s legal system could be used to strengthen member states’ competitiveness. “EU competitiveness is not just about economic matters, but legal issues, too,” he added.
He said tools needed to be found that could strengthen the legal position of vulnerable SMEs, the “backbone” of economic life and job creation in the EU, and ease their access to legal recourse. He pointed to the importance of member states’ cooperation in the fight against drugs and organised crime. He called anti-Semitism “extremely dangerous” and noted that Hungary had a “zero tolerance” policy for anti-Semitism. The ministers discussed ways to take common steps against anti-Semitism and racism by exchanging information and adopting best practices, he added.
The war in Ukraine was also discussed, he said. Reynders said ways to hold accountable people who had committed atrocities were being considered, including the establishment of an international court.
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Albania views Hungary as a role model, the country’s prime minister said in Budapest after meeting Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for talks on Friday.
Hungary has carried out the internal reform of its public administration system in “an exemplary way,” Edi Rama told a joint press conference.
He praised the structural transformation of the Hungarian government, adding that Hungary had started to create a society moving towards welfare within “a not too promising financial framework”.
Rama thanked Orbánfor the unwavering support towards the Western Balkans. He also thanked the Hungarian EU presidency for its coordination work to move ahead with Albania’s EU integration process.
Rama noted that at their meeting two cooperation agreements had been signed in agriculture and public administration.
Orbán: Albania should be in EU long time ago
Albania should be in the European Union a long time ago, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in Budapest on Friday after meeting Albanian counterpart Edi Rama for talks.
Orbán said at a joint press conference that they had discussed the situation in Europe, the future of the Western Balkans and politics in Europe. The prime minister said that in recent years, he had received many insights from Rama that he could use also in Hungarian politics.
“We must now help our Albanian friends because the Western Balkans countries have been waiting for European Union accession on average for 15 years,” he said, noting that Albania had been waiting since 2009. Orbán said Europe had enough trouble, adding that the most obvious cure would be for the EU to finally allow the Western Balkans countries to join.
He said Albania had performed excellently during talks. If accession was a merit-based process, Albania should have been in the EU a long time ago, he said, adding that it was difficult to overcome the political animosity or cautiousness against enlargement.
An EU-Albania intergovernmental conference will be held in Luxembourg next Tuesday, where the first Albanian accession chapters will be opened, he said. Orbán said that he was proud that this was taking place during Hungary’s EU presidency.
Orbán said the last time the EU was getting enlarged was also during a Hungarian presidency. Hungary urges the EU to provide financial support to the Western Balkans countries in line with responsible neighbourhood policy as soon as possible, and it is not necessary to wait until membership is granted.
The prime minister said he and Rama had agreed to continue bilateral cooperation. Hungary welcomes Albanian business partners and is ready to expand its participation in the modernisation of that country’s economy, he said. The European Growth Facility and other instruments are available for this purpose, so that the countries can receive the financial support required for growth.
Regarding bilateral issues discussed at the talks, Orbán said Albania was a very important partner for Hungary, with Hungarian companies playing key roles in some key industries. He cited 4iG in the telecommunications market involved in the preparation of a large investment project to link Albania with Egypt by way of a telecommunications network.
Wizzair connects more than 50 cities and towns with Tirana, OTP won the best digital and business bank title in Albania this year, and the Budapest Water Works has received a key role in the modernisation of Tirana’s water network, Orbán said.
He said that he and Rama had agreed to continue bilateral cooperation. Hungary welcomes Albanian business partners and is ready to expand its participation in the modernisation of that country’s economy, he said.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber are seeking to “topple the sovereigntist Hungarian government” and replace it with a “Brussels-style administration”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview broadcast on Friday.
Referring to the recent debate in the European Parliament before which he also briefed MEPs and EU officials about Hungary’s EU presidency, Orbánsaid contributors had “ignored the facts, were full of hate, and unbothered about Europe and the European people”. The debate, he added, was directed towards toppling the Hungarian government and replacing it with Klára Dobrev of the European Socialists, while the EPP wanted the Tisza Party and its leader, Péter Magyar, in the government.
Orbán said he had always believed that this was the goal of the two European leaders, but addressing it so blatantly instead of dealing with European affairs had been “unusual”. It was made clear they wanted this coalition, “and the marriage took place before our eyes”, he said. Both were ready to fulfil Brussels’ demands for Hungary to get involved in the war in Ukraine and back its migration policy, which would “let migrants in”, scrap family and child protection laws, and also enter economic and trade wars.
“Brussels wants to install a socialist and a people’s party representative in the Hungarian government to promote its chief aims, which are exactly what causes conflicts between Hungary and Brussels. Instead of sovereigntist Hungarian politics, we’ll have a Brussels government,” he said. The prime minister praised Hungary’s “very high-quality” presidency programme, adding that “very good staff” were working under the leadership of the minister for EU affairs János Bóka.
A high-quality debate about “why the European economy is in trouble, why the Americans and the Chinese are overtaking Europe … the problem with migrants and green transition” could have been had, except that contributors were “lusting after blood” and were uninterested in having a meaningful debate about Europe’s “biggest challenges”. “When ten people come at you, it’s rock and roll, so it was rock and roll,” he said.
Orbán spoke about a “rough” situation as Hungarians were “polite, generous, well-mannered”, but he was afraid that if he carried on behaving like a gentleman they would “see us as fools”. The prime minister said Hungarian viewers, who may have a completely different picture of Europe, may have found the debate shocking. “We thought there were intelligent people there,” he said, and while there were some “interesting figures” among the MEPs, it had been assumed that they nevertheless represented some kind of European standard.
Orbán added that the debate had been “a culture shock” for him, too. Brussels, he added, would recognise that they were “losing this battle”, and the public and facts “do not support this type of Brussels intervention”. “Our greatest allies are reality and the public…” “[L]et’s return to normal European politics and leave member states alone,” he said. “Leave Hungary alone!” The prime minister noted that one Hungarian EU presidency proposal was a series of summits on border protection and migration similar to those devoted to the consequences of the 2008 financial crisis, at first informal and then institutionalised. This forum would operate without input from the EC.
Frontex, he said, “which now operates like a tourist company transporting migrants inland”, should be subordinated to this body. “Europe is turning,” he said. “Give it just a bit more time and they will adopt an anti-migration political policy, as people in western Europe are far from happy about what’s going on in terms of migration, while governments are falling into migration failure.”
During the recent U.S. Presidential debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, Trump mentioned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán as an example of his appeal to foreign leaders. “Let me just say about world leaders: Viktor Orbán, one of the most respected men, they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person, a smart prime minister of Hungary,” Trump said.
Many patriotic Hungarians likely agree with Trump. But on the world stage, despite his political prowess at home, Viktor Orbán is a small player. Provocative and often at odds with his colleagues in the EU, Mr. Orbán may be running out of time as real-world issues, such as Hungary’s troubled economy, clash with his Christian Democratic ideology.
Hungary’s restrictive immigration policy and rejection of LGBTQ rights not only drive away foreign workers and “sexual deviants” but also many young skilled Hungarians who are disillusioned with Orbán and his Fidesz Party.
Unlike Soviet times, when traveling outside Hungary required a visa that could take years to obtain (if at all), today Hungarians can live and work freely in any of the EU’s 27 member countries. While most see this as a positive, it could prove to be a curse for Mr. Orbán at this precarious moment in his political career, as Hungary lags behind the rest of Europe. Christian Democratic ideals may please Orbán’s base, but they come at a cost.
Hungary boasts a glorious past dating back to 896, but aside from the nostalgia this history evokes, it is largely irrelevant in a nation now reduced to an experimental Evangelical fantasyland, where religious zealots—inside and outside government—are building a Christian Democratic state. Many Americans see Mr. Orbán as a guiding light and wonder: If only we could do in the United States—under Donald Trump—what Viktor Orbán has achieved in Hungary.
Despite Mr. Trump’s kind words and Orbán’s populist appeal, Hungary is a minor player on today’s global stage. Apart from tourism, Christian extremism, and a handful of companies, Hungary’s economy is in decline. With a population of 9.5 million, Hungary accounts for just 2.1% of the EU’s total population of 449 million. Its contribution to the EU economy is even smaller, comprising only 1.2% of GDP in 2023.
According to a recent EU Eurostat report (2015–2022), Hungary lags behind the rest of Europe and, embarrassingly, its neighbors in terms of labor productivity.
When skilled workers leave and under-skilled workers remain, this is the result. A country not only loses its best minds but also forfeits the greater tax revenue that comes from higher-paid workers.
Source: Eurostat
This is the brain-drain effect, and Hungary has a long history of it. Following World War I, brilliant minds like Von Neumann, Teller, and Szilárd fled in fear of Hungary’s alliance with Germany. In 1956, during the Budapest uprising, future Intel CEO Andy Grove (Graf András) escaped to the U.S., along with hundreds of others. It is hard to quantify Hungary’s brain drain contribution to the U.S. economy, but it wouldn’t surprise me if it exceeds Hungary’s existing GDP.
While the world has experienced inflation since the COVID pandemic, the pain is particularly acute in Hungary, where inflation is double that of the EU average.
To say that Mr. Orbán has a community of oligarch supporters he needs to keep happy is no exaggeration. It’s one more drain on the Hungarian economy, negating any benefits from cheaper fuel imports from Russia.
Source: Eurostat
While the EU has reduced imports from Russia, Hungarian imports have increased. Publicly, Mr. Orbán claims to be protecting Hungarians from high heating bills. Privately, he’s realigning Hungary with Russia as a backup plan for Hungary’s shaky alliance with the EU. The man who told Russia to go home in 1989 seems to have welcomed them back in 2024.
While Mr. Orbán and Mr. Putin may have different talking points, they are united in their cringe-worthy outlook on LGBTQ rights and share a deep resentment toward those in the U.S. and Europe who have lectured them on this subject for the past 20 years.
Source: Eurostat
While the rights of all people must be protected in a civilized world, some matters are best approached gently—or perhaps not at all. What American and Western European leaders fail to understand is that Hungary and other Eastern European countries remain emotionally tied to a past when kaisers and kings ruled. It’s how they preserve tradition and maintain a sense of purpose in the world. For many, discussions about sexual orientation are deeply off-putting.
While the rest of Europe advances on renewable energy, Hungary’s progress has been limited to rhetoric, according to the Berlin-based Clean Energy Wire.
Source: Eurostat
In addition to political and economic challenges, Mr. Orbán faced further problems earlier this year when it was revealed that a man convicted of concealing sexual abuse at a boys’ home had been secretly pardoned. For a government preoccupied with “deviant sexuality” and pedophilia, this was a bad look. As a result, Orbán’s former colleague Péter Magyar and his new party have emerged as a threat to Orbán’s reelection in 2026.
For Mr. Trump, none of this matters. Because Viktor Orbán is the only European leader willing to praise Trump, he must therefore be a respected and powerful person. Details don’t matter to a self-make genius who, we can be assured, knows more than anybody.
Hungarians want to make their own decisions as to what kind of government the country should have, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told public radio in an interview broadcast on Friday.
“Those in Brussels might want to delegate a government comprising the Hungarian Socialists and the Tisza Party, but Hungarians will have something to say about that; we won’t sit idly by as this happens,” Orbánsaid. (It is important to note that the Tisza Party has almost as many voters in Hungary by now as Fidesz – ed.)
“We can’t have Brussels telling us how to live and sending us their mercenaries to carry this out,” he said, adding: “We’ve already had a time when they tried to tell us from the outside how we ought to live. That was what we rid ourselves of 30 years ago.”
Orbán vowed that Hungary would oppose “this plan by Brussels to delegate a government here”.
Opening the new, permanent exhibition of the Museum of Ethnography, the prime minister said on Thursday that “in the current situation in Europe, we Hungarians can survive only if we live our culture and traditions.”
Viktor Orbán said that if a nation lost its folk culture, it would also lose its ability “to judge what is good and what is bad” and “get confused to know what hurts it and what benefits it.”
Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
“Then come the ambiguous ideals, truths turned inside out, and absurd suggestions that the family is not a cohabitation of a man and a woman, but an endless variation of spontaneous configurations. Suggestions that diversity represents value, even if it fuels crime and terrorism, or the thinking that in order to live in peace, we must continue a hopeless war,” he said.
“Let’s thank to God that things here [in Hungary] are at their right place, common sense is prevalent and order stemming from folk culture also infiltrates our daily life,” the prime minister said.
Orbán: ‘City Park pilgrimage site of national culture’
Performance by the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble at the opening. Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
The City Park is not only a public park, but also “a pilgrimage site of Hungarian national culture,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said opening the new, permanent exhibition of the Museum of Ethnography in Budapest on Thursday.
This event is an integral part of the government’s efforts to renew the entire City Park, he said.
Years ago, the City Park was in “scandalous condition”, and the Budapest City Council was not ready, or maybe not willing to improve its condition, so the government had to take action, Orbán said.
A performance by the Budafok Dohnányi Orchestra at the opening. Photo: MTI/Koszticsák Szilárd
The government therefore launched the Liget Budapest project, one of Europe’s largest and highest-quality cultural development projects, he said.
Péter Magyar, the leader and an MEP of the opposition Tisza Party, on Wednesday said he would be “more than happy” to ask the European Parliament to lift his immunity if the Hungarian government joined the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO).
At a press conference with European People’s Party leader Manfred Weber in Strasbourg, Magyarsaid he believed he had made Prime Minister Viktor Orban “a generous offer” when proposing the EP lift his immunity if Orban instructed his MPs to approve the law on Hungary joining the EPPO.
Asked about the ongoing criminal investigation against Magyar, Weber said he had been contacted by “Viktor Orban’s team” in connection with the case, adding that “the rule of law means exactly that these kinds of things are not politicised or discussed by political leaders.”
“It’s the job of the JURI committee to make an assessment … So those who want to politicise these things obviously have other interests in mind,” Weber said.
The EPP leader said Orbán’s address to the European Parliament’s plenary session was “a great moment to discuss about Europe and the Hungarian internal situation”. He said Hungary was “a strong country inside the European Union” and Hungarians were “true Europeans” who could count on European solidarity.
He said Hungary deserved to have a strong voice at the European level and to have a real impact on the representation of Hungarian interests in the bloc.
“Therefore Péter Magyar and the Tisza Party are now embedded in the EPP family,” Webersaid. “So the strength of Hungary, the voice of Hungary, is present with Peter Magyar, with the friends from the Tisza Party, who are doing a great job to deliver on the Hungarian interests. And if I compare this with Viktor Orbán, then I have to say that nobody wants to show up in Budapest, nobody wants to go there.”
He said that whereas in 2011 there were 44 high-level meetings in Budapest, “today no one wants to go to Budapest, so that shows that the Hungarian government today is not delivering on bringing a strong Hungarian voice to the European negotiating table.”
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Péter Magyari, a journalist for Válasz Online, argues that Washington, Brussels, and Berlin no longer wish to persuade the Hungarian Prime Minister regarding anything, as they perceive Orbán and his government as traitors to Western powers and values. This situation could lead to significant policy changes in Budapest, as well as potential sanctions against Hungary, as relations have reached an unprecedented low.
Magyari begins by noting that US Ambassador David Pressman threatened the Hungarian government during a speech at the Budapest Forum on 18 September. He stated, “There must be a reckoning for Hungary’s allies and partners. We too must recognise that what we used to dismiss with an eye-roll requires us to confront it directly and respond to it unflinchingly.”
Pressman remarked that there was a troubling consistency between the words and actions of the Orbán administration. He added that the government exploits the aggressive rhetoric of pro-government media. “Hungary’s billboards, headlines, and statements are no longer – if they ever were – mere words, political rhetoric, or communications ploys. They are an arm of state power,” Pressman asserted.
Pressman carefully selected his words. Photo: FB/US Embassy
Magyari believes Pressman chose his words with great care, as diplomats are always required to do so. The term “arm” is particularly significant in this context, suggesting that Hungary has opted to align itself with the “wrong” side of history. If the American ambassador expresses such views, it is clear that Washington considers the Hungarian government a potential threat.
Attacks from American Republicans
Furthermore, Republican leaders in the US have launched additional attacks against PM Orbán and his administration. Mitch McConnell, the US Senate Republican leader, stated that PM Orbán admires Russian President Putin and supports him. “His government runs interference for Moscow, gumming up European and trans-Atlantic efforts to combat Russia’s unlawful aggression at every turn,” he asserted.
McConnell also condemned Orbán’s cordial relations with Xi Jinping and the increasing Chinese influence and investments in Hungary. “When Chinese state enterprise has said jump, Hungarian officials have asked, how high?”, he wrote. “As European allies began to heed warnings from the Trump Administration to reduce reliance on Chinese industry and technology, Budapest repeatedly blocked EU progress and welcomed a geyser of Chinese Belt-and-Road investment.”
Washington does not buy that Orbán’s visit in Moscow this July was for peace. Photo: FB/Orbán
McConnell further criticised Hungary’s relationship with Iran, saying, “I have little sympathy for Hungarian companies that struggle to profit from their ties to the genocidal regime in Tehran.” He concluded that the Orbán regime is betting on an American decline. “They’re not hiding the ways they’re preparing for American weakness and betting on our failure.”
In the first weeks of October, a Senate delegation visited Hungary and expressed concerns regarding the deepening ties between Russia and Hungary, as well as China and Hungary, along with the ongoing erosion of democratic institutions in Hungary.
Démarche from Germany and France
The United States is not the Orbán cabinet’s sole critic in the Western hemisphere. We wrote HERE that the ambassadors of Germany and France sent a démarche to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about Balázs Orbán’s words. Balázs Orbán is the political director of PM Orbán, but they are not related. Mr Orbán sat behind the prime minister even today in Strasbourg while his boss was explaining the priorities of the Hungarian EU Presidency and answering critical remarks said by the officials of the European Commission and MEPs.
Balázs Orbán in the right side of the photo. Photo: MTI
Balázs Orbán said in an interview that they would not have recommended Zelensky defend his country against Russian aggression. That is because the Hungarians learned from our 1956 anti-Communist uprising that resisting a Russian invasion is futile. Orbán’s words were followed by public outcry. The two ambassadors said such thoughts undermine the common values of NATO and the European Union.
Orbán not neutral
Válasz Online believes that Germany’s message was unequivocal: PM Orbán’s notion of “economic neutrality” and his failure to choose between East and West are unacceptable to the West.
Politicians in the West perceive the Hungarian government as a puppet of China and a supporter of Putin. This is not neutrality; rather, it is an alignment with adversaries.
Meanwhile, Magyari points out that Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has expressed the Hungarian government’s warm feelings towards Milorad Dodik, the leader of the Serbs in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Washington has imposed sanctions on Dodik multiple times due to his actions undermining the Dayton Agreement.
Dodik and Szijjártó in Banja Luka. Source: FB/Szijjártó
Szijjártó, for instance, consistently praises Belarus, Russia, China, and other Eastern nations on his Facebook page, while routinely criticising Western leaders. He has claimed that China is a global peacemaker, while American and EU politicians are pro-war, risking further escalation. This indicates that the Hungarian government views NATO as a threat to global peace, rather than Russia, which invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Strong ties to Russia harm business
Media reports indicate that the Orbán cabinet’s close ties to Russia were a key factor in the Hungarian company Ganz-Mávag’s failure to acquire the Spanish company Talgo in September.
All these factors suggest a shift in Hungary’s standing within the West. Magyari contends that Hungary is no longer seen as an ally but rather as a foe. The journalist expressed uncertainty regarding whether there are any quiet negotiations about a policy shift from Hungary or further sanctions from the EU. Many speculate that the outcome of Trump’s election in November will significantly influence these issues.
Read also:
PM Orbán in the ‘lion’s den’: can he convince the European Parliament that he wasn’t a traitor? – read more HERE
Counter-protester interrupts start of Viktor Orbán’s press conference in Strasbourg, he asked how much he betrayed Hungary for – video and more in THISarticle
Péter Magyari, a journalist for Válasz Online, should not be confused with Péter Magyar, the leader of the Hungarian opposition Tisza Party and currently the most significant challenger to the Orbán regime.
Featured image: Geert Wilders, leader of the Dutch Freedom Party, Andre Ventura, the leader of the Portuguese Chega party, Italian deputy prime minister Matteo Salvini, and PM Viktor Orbán in Pontida last weekend. Photo: MTI
Addressing a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, opposition Tisza Party MEP Péter Magyar said the premierships of Ferenc Gyurcsány and Viktor Orbán “were the decades of missed opportunities”, insisting that Hungary had become “the poorest and most corrupt” country in the European Union.
Responding to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s speech on the Hungarian EU presidency’s programme, Magyar said Orbán “had every opportunity over the last 14 years to make Hungary a land of fulfilled promises”.
“Our ancestors fought for centuries for our country’s independence and sovereignty and to make Hungary a part of Europe,” Magyar said. “An overwhelming majority of Hungarians voted to join NATO and the EU, and if they had to vote today, they’d say the same thing.”
Magyar said he was in agreement with Orbánon the need to protect the EU’s external borders and take firm action against illegal migration. He criticised Hungary’s government for “releasing 2,000 people smugglers from Hungarian prisons”. He accused “government-affiliated oligarchs” of “doing business with residency bonds” and the government of planning to build a “migrant camp” near the border with Austria.
Photo: FB/Orbán
“Why have you spent 1,309 billion forints (EUR 3.3bn) on propaganda in five years when the Hungarian state isn’t functioning and public services are falling apart?” Magyar said.
Magyar shook hands with Orbán after his speech:
Russians blackmailing Orbán?
Klára Dobrev, an MEP of the leftist opposition Democratic Coalition, said Europe “doesn’t care” about the programme of the Hungarian EU presidency because it considered it “unserious and filled with platitudes”. She insisted that the Hungarian prime minister was “growing more and more detached from reality, fighting enemies that are the figments of his own imagination and alienating Hungary’s true friends and allies”.
Dobrev said Orbán was setting up obstacles to EU policies with the intention of helping Russia and its oligarchs and aiding extortionate Russian gas and energy imports to the benefit of Russian President Putin. She called on Orbán to “reveal what the Russians are blackmailing you with”.
Photo: Facebook/Dobrev Klára
Orbán’s MEP Tamás Deutsch thinks Magyar has mental problems
Tamás Deutsch, an MEP of ruling Fidesz, said Magyar had “mental problems”, arguing that he had admitted to secretly recording a conversation with his wife for the purpose of blackmailing her later, and that he had “psychologically abused” her.
“Magyar’s actions are a textbook example of domestic abuse,” Deutsch said. “But he’s also in legal trouble because he has committed a crime,” Deutsch added, noting the allegation that the Tisza leader accosted an individual at a club and stole his mobile phone before throwing it in the Danube.
Deutsch said Magyar was “hiding behind his immunity to escape accountability”, calling on MEPs “not to be his accomplices”.
Csaba Dömötör, another Fidesz MEP, said the EP was “mounting a witch hunt” against Hungary while the EU’s competitiveness was weakening and the Schengen system “crumbling”.
Zsuzsanna Borvendég of the Our Homeland Movement accused the EU of “punishing” Hungary, withholding funds the country is entitled to and refusing to contribute to border protection costs. She said the EU also wanted to boycott the programme of the Hungarian EU presidency despite the fact that it had put important issues on the agenda.
UPDATE – Orbán’s reactions
Europe must be protected from European left
Europe must be protected from the European left wing, “as they think democracy only exists as long as they win and ends as soon as the right wins”, the prime minister said during a debate on the Hungarian presidency’s programme at the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday. In his response to MEPs’ speeches, Viktor Orbán said the debate “has long left behind common sense and the world of facts”. The EP “has become a field of cheap propaganda,” he said.
Orbán said that propaganda rendered intelligent, impartial debate on the rule of law and corruption impossible. According to the European Commission’s report on the rule of law and Hungary’s judiciary, the country “has complied with all demands and requests”, he said, adding that the EC itself had found Hungary’s public procurement system to be fully in line with Brussels requirements.
The proportion of Hungarian respondents who said they were satisfied with the state of democracy in their country was higher than that in most other European countries, he said.
“It is possibly not by chance that Hungarian voters have consistently put their trust in us at elections.”
MEP beat peaceful people with an iron bar in the streets of Budapest
Responding to accusations of graft levelled at Hungary and Orbán himself, he said: “If you read data published by the World Bank, rather than corruption reports funded by George Soros, you would see that Hungary is up to scratch in that regard. It is no different from your countries.”
Orbán called it “absurd” that Green MEP Ilaria Salis, “an antifa activist arrested in Budapest who beat peaceful people with an iron bar in the streets”, was speaking about the rule of law. A Belgian MEP also “lectured Hungary on the rule of law”, even when a conference on that very topic was recently “banned” in Brussels, he said.
Putin sat in their kitchen
Commenting on a statement by the European Socialists, who said Hungary “has an overly friendly relationship” with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Orbán turned to Democratic Coalition MEP Klára Dobrev, saying: “When your husband [Ferenc Gyurcsány] was prime minister, Putin sat in your kitchen. You used to be proud of that and flooded the Hungarian media with pictures of the event.”
He lamented that an occasion to present the Hungarian presidency’s programme to the EP had “turned into a debate on Hungarian domestic politics”. At the same time, MEPs “can see clearly that Hungarian democracy is fine, thank you; it is robust and strong.”
He said “it isn’t right” that Hungarian MEPs “attacked” their country in the EP. “What sort of person would use an international forum to attack their own country?”
It was also “absurd”, he said, that a Hungarian MEP now sitting in the European People’s Party had recently told the Hungarian public that being an MEP was a “fake job, only for making good money”.
Europe must be protected from the left
Referring to Tisza party leader Péter Magyar, Orbán said: “I think it is egregious that a Hungarian should talk about abuse [of power] here, even as there is an ongoing procedure against him for theft at home,” adding that Magyar had “clearly” taken on his mandate “only to hide behind his MEP immunity”.
“I must say it seems that the left thinks democracy only exists as long as they win, and ends as soon as the right wins,” he said, adding that Europe was to be protected from the left.
“More respect for Hungary! More respect for Hungarians!” he said in conclusion.
Read also:
PM Orbán in the ‘lion’s den’: can he convince the European Parliament that he wasn’t a traitor? – read more HERE
VIDEO: Counter-protester interrupts start of Viktor Orbán’s press conference in Strasbourg – details in THISarticle
Reports have surfaced suggesting that key Western powers, from Washington to Berlin, are increasingly viewing Hungary as a traitor to the “Western Bloc” and an ally of authoritarian regimes and political and economic rivals such as China and Russia. Can Prime Minister Orbán convince the European Parliament today that these accusations are unfounded, and that the EU should rethink its policies on Ukraine, migration, competitiveness, and other pressing issues? While he is set to address the Parliament on the priorities of Hungary’s upcoming EU Presidency, the questions and reactions from MEPs are likely to cover a much broader range of topics.
Even opposition leader Péter Magyar will be able to question Orbán
Yesterday, Prime Minister Orbán held an international press conference in Strasbourg, addressing a wide array of subjects, including the EU’s declining competitiveness, migration, and border security. We covered his remarks and how a DK activist attempted to interrupt him in THISarticle.
From 9 a.m. today, he will be presenting the priorities of Hungary’s EU presidency to the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The ensuing debate is expected to be heated, with Hungarian MEPs, including opposition leader Péter Magyar, poised to ask questions and clarify their positions.
HEREyou may follow the live stream of the session.
Wake-up call for the European Union
According to the Hungarian News Agency, Orbán said the European Union must change and he was there to “sound a wake-up call”. Presenting the Hungarian EU presidency’s programme, he noted that Hungary was holding the presidency of the Council of the European Union for the second time, after its first stint in 2011.
He said steering the EU then had not been easy but the task was far more difficult today as the situation of the bloc was “far more serious” than in 2011, and “perhaps more serious than at any time” in its history, noting wars affecting Europe in Ukraine, the Middle East and Africa, all of which were at risk of escalation.
Orbán said Ursula von der Leyen contributed a lot to the EU’s ineffective strategy concerning the war in Ukraine. He said that strategy should be changed and an immediate ceasefire is needed. Photo: MTI
Meanwhile, the migration crisis threatened to tear the Schengen area apart, he said. Orbán said Europe was losing its global competitiveness and the bloc faced decisions that would determine its fate.
The EU must change
The European Union must change, and the Hungarian presidency of the EU aims to be “the voice and catalyst of change”, he added. Presenting the Hungarian EU presidency’s programme, Orbán said competitiveness was the most important element of change.
He said decisions had to be made by EU member states and institutions rather than the Hungarian presidency. Hungary’s job, he added, was to point out problems and present proposals in the interest of the EU’s peace, security and prosperity.
Concerning the EU’s competitiveness woes, Orban said the bloc’s economic growth had consistently lagged behind those of the United States and China over the last two decades, its productivity growth was slower than that of its competitors and its share in global trade was falling.
Businesses pay two to three times more for electricity than in the US and gas prices are four to five times higher, he added.
UPDATES
Success of Hungarian presidency ‘will be success of the entire
The Hungarian EU presidency aims for a successful European Union, asserting that its presidency “will be the success of the entire EU,” according to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. In presenting the programme for the Hungarian presidency, Orbán emphasised the need for solutions “based on common sense” to address shared European challenges. He stated that European security and defence policy should function at the level of European institutions and that strengthening the bloc’s defence industries and technological base would be the most effective means of achieving this.
In discussing EU enlargement, Orbán highlighted the integration of the Western Balkans as a critical issue for European security, insisting that this process must be accelerated. He also advocated for increased competitiveness in European agriculture while underscoring the necessity of reducing developmental disparities between regions.
New European competitiveness deal needed
Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union seeks to secure approval for a new European competitiveness deal at an informal summit in Budapest on 8 November, Orbán stated. He identified digital technology as the primary factor contributing to the productivity gap between the EU and the United States. Furthermore, he pointed out unfavourable demographic trends, asserting that statistics indicate that migration cannot offset the natural decline of the EU’s population.
Member states expect prompt and decisive action from European institutions, he remarked. They are looking for a reduction in administrative burdens, a relaxation of overregulation, guarantees of affordable energy prices, a green industrial policy, the strengthening of the internal market, a capital markets union, and a broader trade policy that prioritises connectivity rather than forming blocs, he added. He also noted that the EU’s rapidly developing battery industry represents a success, as recognised in the Draghi report. This suggests that targeted, strategic intervention in Europe can indeed be successful and beneficial, he concluded.
Green transition not a solution to mounting energy prices
Orbán cautioned that Europeans should not fall into the “illusion” that the green transition alone provides a solution to energy price issues; instead, boosting the bloc’s competitiveness is essential. He noted that half of European companies view energy costs as the primary obstacle to investment, while energy-intensive industries have experienced a drop in output of 10-15%.
Analyses indicate that even if renewable energy goals are met by 2030, operating hours where fossil fuels determine energy prices will not decline significantly, he asserted. Orbán remarked that the objective of the European Green Deal is to create new green jobs, yet it remains questionable whether decarbonisation would lead to diminished output and job losses. He cited the car industry as a stark example of “the lack of EU planning,” arguing that climate policy has not been aligned with industrial policy.
Orbán proposes regular Schengen summits
Addressing the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán proposed the establishment of regular summits for the leaders of the Schengen Area. In presenting the programme for the Hungarian EU presidency, he also argued that Bulgaria and Romania should be granted full Schengen membership before the year’s end.
Orbán stated that the European Union’s asylum system is ineffective, asserting that illegal migration has contributed to an increase in anti-Semitism, violence against women, and homophobia. He attributed this to the EU’s “failed migration policy,” which has led several member states to seek the opportunity to opt out of the bloc’s asylum system, prompting concerns over illegal migration and security that have resulted in the reintroduction of border checks.
The Prime Minister argued that it is time to address this issue at the highest political level and to discuss whether it is possible to “recreate the political will needed for the effective operation of the Schengen Area,” proposing a series of “Schengen summits.” He reiterated the Hungarian presidency’s aim to secure full Schengen membership for Bulgaria and Romania before the year’s end.
‘If attacked, I will defend my country’, says Orbán
Following a speech Viktor Orbán gave to the European Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday, the prime minister reacted to critical speeches, saying a “political intifada” had ensued instead of a debate on the priorities of the Hungarian EU presidency. “If we’re attacked, I will defend my country,” he declared. Responding to speeches by EP group leaders and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, Orbán said: it was wrong for the EP president to highlight differences of opinion in the context of the work of the EU presidency as this had turned the EU executive into a political body that attacked “right-wingers and European patriots”. “This isn’t right,” he said.
The prime minister also “decisively rejected” her attempt to draw parallels between Hungarian 1956 freedom fighters and the situation in Ukraine. “This is a mistake and dishonours the memory of Hungarian freedom fighters. There is nothing in common between the Ukrainian-Russian war and 1956,” Orbán said. “I reject all false and misleading historical analogies.”
Orbán said it was important to acknowledge that Ukraine was losing the war, adding that the EU had “entered the war in Ukraine recklessly, based on miscalculations and with a flawed strategy.” “If we want to win, the current losing strategy must be changed,” he said.
He called for diplomacy, communication, “and direct or indirect contacts” in service of a peaceful settlement, or else “we’ll get deeper and deeper into war”. “Let’s argue for a ceasefire and come up with another strategy…” he said. Meanwhile, he called von der Leyen’s accusation that Hungary had released people smugglers from prisons “unfair”, insisting that Hungary had arrested more than 2,000 people smugglers. “So we deserve recognition, not criticism,” he said. Reacting to remarks made by Manfred Weber, the European People’s Party’s (EPP) group leader, Orbán said: “We will never accept equating European unity with you ordering us to shut up if we don’t like something.”
You want to teach us about democracy? Impossible!
Orbán decried the denial of EP committee posts for right-wing Patriot MEPs, saying “this could never happen in Hungary”. “You want to teach us about democracy? Impossible!”
Reacting to a speech by Renew Europe MEP Valerie Hayer, Orbán said the Hungarian constitution gave everyone the right to live according to their own way of life, protecting the family, children, and marriage, while also stating that marriage is between a man and a woman, and the father is a man and the mother is a woman. “That’s how it will stay, whether you like it or not,” he added.
Orbán also said Hungary’s trade ties were transparent, while many other EU countries bypassed EU sanctions by covertly trading with Russia through Asia.
Addressing MEPs, the prime minister said he had intended to speak about the “competitiveness problem” and “migration problem”, and the Hungarian presidency’s related proposals, but “they have turned the meeting into a party political intifada”. “If we are attacked, I will defend my country,” Orbán said.
Read also:
PM Orbán’s Fidesz demands immediate ceasefire in Ukraine, says Brussels, Washington are pro-war – read more HERE
Orbán’s Italian getaway: luxury hotel stay and exclusive seafood dinner – VIDEO and more here
When Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned in the summer that the intensity of the war in Ukraine would escalate rapidly, after his round of diplomacy with the Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese and Turkish presidents, events have since proven him right, Fidesz communications director Tamás Menczer said on Facebook.
He said Orbán wrote the warning in a report to the president of the European Council in July.
In the video post late on Tuesday, Menczer added that during meetings with the leaders and the former US president, Donald Trump, it had become clear that the warring parties were not interested in a ceasefire and only an outside party could bring them to the table.
“This is unlikely as the current American and Brussels leadership are pro-war,” he said.
Photo: FB/Orbán
So Trump’s role as a peace mediator “is especially important”, he said.
“The only way to establish peace is to negotiate with the Chinese, with the Russians … and with the countries of the global South,” he cited Orbán as saying.
More than 8,000 Ukrainian citizens enter Hungary on Tuesday
Fully 4,660 Ukrainian citizens entered Hungary at the Ukraine-Hungary border on Tuesday, while 3,850 came to the country via Romania, according to the national police headquarters (ORFK). Police issued temporary residence permits valid for 30 days to 41 people, ORFK said on Wednesday.
Read also:
FM Szijjártó: Hungary doesn’t want EU to send military advisers to Ukraine – read more HERE
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán answered journalists’ questions for two hours in the European Parliament on Tuesday afternoon. The Hungarian prime minister held a press conference the day before he was due to present the programme of the Hungarian presidency in the EP.
Hungary’s EU presidency to table five-year competitiveness deal
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said the deterioration of Europe’s competitiveness was a “serious challenge” and Hungary’s presidency of the Council of the European Union would propose a new competitiveness deal, speaking at a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday.
Orbán said that challenge had to be addressed in the context of the war in Ukraine and conflicts in the Middle East and in Africa that were at risk of escalating. He also pointed to security threats not seen since the 2015 migration crisis that were putting pressure on the EU’s passport-free Schengen zone.
Hungary’s EU presidency will propose a new European competitiveness deal, extending for five years, at an informal summit in Budapest on November 8, Orbán said. He added that a reduction in administrative burdens and overregulation, affordable energy prices, green industrial policy and a strengthening of the internal market were part of the new competitiveness deal. He also said that barriers to the movement of goods and services needed to be removed, while EU capital markets had to be bolstered to prevent savings from flowing to investments in the United States, and a policy of connectivity advanced.
He said the EU needed change and Hungary’s EU presidency wanted to be a catalyst for that change.
Orbán noted that he was in Strasbourg to present the programme for Hungary’s EU presidency to MEPs on Wednesday. He said that it was the second time he had personally headed Hungary’s EU presidency and recalled that the first time, in 2011, involved dealing with the aftermath of the global financial crisis, the Arab Spring and Fukushima. Hungary’s next EU presidency is “written in my calendar, as optimism is important”, he added.
He said Hungary’s EU presidency, given the country’s size, could point out problems and make recommendations, but European institutions and big member states would have to take the decisions. Improving competitiveness is the focus of Hungary’s EU presidency, he added.
The United States and China have outpaced Europe’s economic growth for two decades, while Europe’s share of global trade has declined, he said. He added that companies in the EU had to pay double or triple what their counterparts in the US paid for electricity and four or five times as much for gas.
He said that European companies spend half as much on R+D as in the US.
Addressing demographic trends, Orbán said the scale of Europe’s labour force didn’t support the continent’s output growth. He added that improving productivity was doubly important as earlier and had to exceed the pace of development in the US.
Orbán called an EU decision to levy punitive tariffs on Chinese EVs “an absurdity” as local automotive industry companies had protested the measure. He added that just ten of the EU’s 27 member states, accounting for 45 percent of the EU’s residents, had backed the move.
Orbán: Migration cannot be stopped without ‘external hotspots’
Illegal migration cannot be stopped without setting up hotspots outside the European Union, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday, adding that those who had made it to the EU “will never leave”.
The only way to stop migration is by forging a consensus between member states on obliging those wanting to enter the bloc to “stop at the border, request admission, and they’re not allowed to enter the EU until their request is assessed”. “If we can’t achieve that, we will never stop migration,” he said.
No government is ready to “round up” migrants already within the borders and expel them from the EU, he said. “The only migrants who won’t stay are the ones we don’t allow in,” Orbán said.
Security guards had to detain opposition protester
Orbán had just started the central part of his speech when Márton Gyekiczki, a member of the DK youth organisation, rushed to his table and shouted several times:
How much did you betray the country for, Prime Minister?
Photo: MTI
He repeated this several times and then shouted on the way out that the Hungarian Prime Minister had sold Hungary to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.
How much did [PM’s political director] Balázs Orbán get to betray the country, Mr Prime Minister?”
After the DK activist was detained and led out by guards, Orbán responded that in Hungarian politics, calling someone a villain only means that you disagree with them. Orbán said Hungarian was a “direct language and communication is rather curt. If a politician calls the other a swindler, that is the equivalent of ‘I disagree'”. He said heckling was an everyday occurrence in Hungary.
Here’s the video showing how a DK local council member interrupted Orbán’s press conference in Strasbourg.
The event was disrupted by Márton Gyekiczki, a DK councilor from Érd, who threw paper notes and yelled, “How much did you betray the country for, Mr. Prime Minister?”… pic.twitter.com/dZiVhtfFnd
The clear statement of Balázs Orbán, criticised by many:
“Based precisely on ’56, we probably would not have done what President Zelensky did 2.5 years ago, because it is irresponsible, because one can see that he took his country into a war of defense”
A video of Balázs Orbán’s interview, with English subtitles
Orbán proposes Schengen summit to handle migration
The Hungarian presidency of the European Union proposes introducing a system of Schengen summits to tackle the issue of migration, PM Orbán said.
Orbán told a presser presenting the EU presidency’s programmme that the EU did not have a successful common migration policy and member states were trying to protect themselves individually.
At the same time those individual attempts were threatening to “dismantle” the Schengen system, so “one large common decision is needed” instead, he said.
Orbán said the Hungarian presidency’s proposal was that similarly to the eurozone countries’ summits, the leaders of Schengen countries should regularly meet, and they should manage the Schengen borders at the highest political level together “similarly to how the euro is being managed”.
Europe will never be complete without integration of Balkans
Illegal migration cannot be stopped without setting up hotspots outside the European Union, Orban said.
The only way to stop migration is by forging a consensus between member states on obliging those wanting to enter the bloc to “stop at the border, request admission, and they’re not allowed to enter the EU until their request is assessed”. “If we can’t achieve that, we will never stop migration,” he said.
No government is ready to “round up” migrants already within the borders and expel them from the EU, he said. “The only migrants who won’t stay are the ones we don’t allow in,” Orban said.
Orban noted that he had represented that stance consistently since 2015, “and I was called an idiot and evil, but ultimately, everyone will come around to that standpoint.”
The EU’s migration policy “is clearly not working”, and illegal migration was spawning growing anti-Semitism, violence against women and homophobia, he said.
Orban said the EU did not have a successful common migration policy and member states were trying to protect themselves individually.
At the same time those individual attempts were threatening to “dismantle” the Schengen system, so “one large common decision is needed” instead, he said.
Orban said the Hungarian presidency’s proposal was that similarly to the eurozone countries’ summits, the leaders of Schengen countries should regularly meet, and they should manage the Schengen borders at the highest political level together, “similarly to how the euro is being managed”.
Photo: MTI
Moving on to the EU’s enlargement, Orbán said Europe will never be complete without the integration of the Balkans, which is why the Hungarian presidency has called a European Union and Western Balkans summit.
EU defence policy and strengthening the bloc’s technological foundations were on the presidency’s agenda and they will be addressed at an informal meeting in Budapest on November 7, he said.
“We promised to the Western Balkans countries twenty years ago that they will be given entry, and it is time to fulfil the promise,”
he said, adding that the Hungarian presidency has also called a summit of the Western Balkans and the European Union.
Enlargement must be merit-based, he said, adding that without Serbia no enlargement will be successful, because the Western Balkans countries cannot be integrated without Serbia, a country “with such a weight and strength that the Balkans cannot be stabilised without it”.
Hungary is working to make progress in that regard, too, he said.
Orbán said the Hungarian presidency also addressed agriculture. The planning of the next financial cycle’s directions has started, and so the mapping of its agricultural policy. The goal is to create a competitive, crisis-resistant and farmer-friendly European agriculture, he said.
If the programme points of the Hungarian presidency are fulfilled, then its slogan, “Make Europe Great Again”, will come to life, he added.
US elections
Commenting on the US elections, Orbán said: “If Trump comes back, we will open several bottles of champagne.” He welcomed that the informal meeting of EU leaders in Budapest was scheduled two days after the election, offering an opportunity to plan the next steps.
Should Trump be elected, “we must take seriously his statements that he will not wait until his inauguration to start handling the war and possible peace in Ukraine. We European leaders will not have 2-3 months between the election and the start of term of the next US president,” Orbán said.
EUR 35 billion loan to Ukraine
In response to a question about why Hungary was not supporting a EUR 35 billion loan to Ukraine, and whether Hungary would fight against Russian President Putin, he said Hungary was carrying out the greatest humanitarian scheme of its history. A large number of Ukrainians have arrived and they have been immediately given asylum, with several tens of thousands of Ukrainians now living in Hungary. Ukrainian schools have been opened in Hungary despite the fact that Hungarian schools have been closed in Ukraine. “We are doing everything that a Christian country can do to help a neighbouring country,” he added.
Orbán said there was a debate about what should be the expected behaviour in the European Union, and Hungary’s opinion differed from most other EU countries’. Hungary wants to see a ceasefire as soon as possible because this war cannot be won on the battlefield, he added. If the war cannot be won in the battlefield, then talks are needed, a ceasefire is needed and lives must be saved, he said. “This is what Hungary wants to help with,” he added. Orbán said communication was viewed as a sin in the EU, yet the war situation cannot be successfully handled without it. Communication is needed, with the involvement of as many countries that can achieve a ceasefire as possible, he added. “Currently we are in a strong minority, but that is no reason for us to give up our clear position,” he said.
European politics
Orbán said there was a great change under way in European politics. A European elite consisting of the Left, liberals and central right call themselves the mainstream. But the people are increasingly dissatisfied with their performance, and the mainstream is surrounded by a circle of protests, he added. People do not agree with the war, they want peace, they do not agree with migration, they do not want to allow the illegal migrants to enter, they do not agree with the economic policy, the agriculture is being damaged, and the companies are over-regulated, with purchasing power decreasing, he said.
“Considering that we live in democracy, these voices find their representatives and new parties, new players appear, with increasing weight,” he said.
Orbán called for calm and common sense, saying that patriots should not be excluded but invited to join.
He said the Brussels mainstream, the bureaucrats, must decide whether they wanted to defend the status quo or listen to the people. The PfE was one of the symptoms, and if the Brussels elite refuses change, they must be pushed to the side.
In response to a question, Orbán said the member states should help each other instead of blocking each other.
He said migration represented a “slap in the face” for EU unity because it highlighted that “we differ from each other in many ways”.
Orbán said that instead of allowing each member state to follow its own migration policy, “the big boys decided that a common migration policy is needed.”
He added that this policy must be followed even by those who do not want it, and Hungary must pay 200 million euros just because it does not want to allow migrants into the country.
Orbán said that with Brexit, the balance was lost between those supporting a centralised, federalist EU and those supporting sovereignty. “This situation has resulted in a growing number of conflicts,” he said, adding that while the Brits were still in the EU, there was no rule of law procedure. The supporters of sovereignty do not want confrontation, but to maintain the former balance, refusing centralisation, he said.
He said he was representing Hungary’s national interests and wanted to agree with all other country leaders on this basis. He said he was not representing a globalist elite or European bureocrats, he was standing with both feet on the ground, as the representative of national interests.
Orbán said Hungary did not agree with the EU’s approach to migration, but said that a compromise must be found sooner or later.
He added that there would always be member states that did not agree with the common migration policy and would not be eble to comply with the decisions of the European Commission or court.
An acceptable solution would be an opt-out from common decisions for member countries that “cannot follow the mainstream”, Orban said, “otherwise the EU will be damaged”. He added that this was why he was glad to see the Netherlands, one of the founding members of the EU, to be the first to bring up the possibility of an opt-out.
Commenting on the “gigantic” fine imposed on Hungary, he said talks with the European Commission have stalled.
In response to a question about when Hungary would start buses transporting migrants to Brussels, he said “the time will come, it is not far away.” He said Hungary would respect European regulations and if asylum seekers in Hungary wanted to go to Brussels, Hungary would help them.
Commenting on criticism he received for his “peace mission” and asked if he felt isolated in the EU, he said it was impossible to be isolated in the EU. He said they had “dreams like that in the Left” but added that when there was an attempt to isolate Austria, it became ridiculous.
He said the start of the Hungarian presidency posed a great challenge. There were two possibilities: one was a bureaucratic Hungarian presidency, but Orban said he decided to view it as a political presidency, with respect to the limitations.
“We have a very friendly attitude to the EU,” he said in response to another question. The EU is made up of nation states, there is no such thing as an EU citizen, but an Italian, French, Hungarian, Dutch citizen. They must be represented, which is not a hostile behavious but a normal approach, he added.
In response to a question on the conditionality procedure, he said Hungary wanted to reach an agreement. “There are good examples, currently Hungary has 12 billion euros on its account, which can be continually incorporated in Hungarian economy, he said, adding that he trusted that a further agreement could be reached.
Erasmus and Horizon programs
Commenting on the Erasmus and Horizon programs, he said Hungary wanted to agree with the Commission to restore these possibilities. At the same time, he said Hungary had set up its own systems. The Pannonia scheme has been set up in place of Erasmus, and a separate research scheme has been set up in place of Horizon.
He branded it “ugly blackmail” that Hungarian students are refused EU support.
Other questions
In response to a question about his relationship with Putin, Orbán said “he is the Russian president and I am the prime minister of Hungary, that is the relationship”.
In response to another question, he said the Schengen membership of Romania and Bulgaria was kept on the agenda. He said he would make every effort to convince everyone that it would greatly benefit the EU. The two countries are ready to protect the external borders, he added.
Orban also said in response to a question that the Hungarian economy was very transparent towards the Russian economy and in areas not affected by sanctions, Hungary tries to cooperate with Russia. He also said that western countries had bought 8.5 billion dollars worth of energy from Russia since the start of the war.
“What we do is completely transparent, what the others do is hypocrisy. Stop criticising Hungary”, Orban said.
He reiterated that no migrant camp will be set up in Hungary.
Asked about an MBH loan to Spain’s VOX party, he said he was involved in politics and not with who lends money to whom, which is private business.
He also said that certain countries had special campaign financing rules, and parties must take out loans. In Hungary, it is the other way round, and if a party wants to run at the election, it receives support from the state budget.
If someone wants to take out a loan in Hungary from a Hungarian bank, the government will have no business with it, because Hungary is a free country, he said.
Commenting on the issue of a ceasefire in Ukraine, he said in response to a question, that during his talks in July he found that both the Russian and the Ukrainian leaders believe time works for them and they do not want a ceasefire and peace. This is bad for Europe, Orban said. Because the sides are unwilling to take steps, international efforts are needed to continually push the sides towards talks, he added.
He said he believed the majority of the world was pro-peace and Europe was pro-war, or “to put it more respecfully, Europe has taken a longer road to peace”.
EP Serbia delegation
In response to a question, Orbán said it was regrettable that a Greek person had been elected instead of a Hungarian one into the EP Serbia delegation, but added that the Greek MEP also deserved the position. He criticised the fact that the Hungarian opposition parties did not support the Hungarian nominee.
According to reports, Orbán, Lévai, Schmidt, and their entourage arrived at the Al Porto restaurant in the municipality of Clusane at around 7 PM on Saturday.
According to the Qui Brescia newspaper, the head of government, sampled a local speciality, compote baked with polenta, while they ordered salami, cheese, and fish as starters. Orbán reportedly had tagliatelle pasta with freshwater crabs before the compote, while his wife had tagliatelle with fish.
The articles also say that the Hungarian prime minister was greeted with a small round of applause at the restaurant and spent the night at the luxury Villa Bondelli resort in Bornato. Quotidiano Nazionale also published a video of the outing, which can be watched here:
Mária Schmidt, a long-time friend of the Orbán family and director of the House of Terror Museum, appears to be gaining increasing political influence. During Viktor Orbán’s visit to North Macedonia, she was seated prominently next to the Prime Minister, signalling her close ties to the leadership. Related article – PM Orbán: North Macedonia should already be an EU member state
Schmidt recently defended Balázs Orbán, the Prime Minister’s strategic director, after his controversial statement that Hungary, unlike Ukraine, would not have defended itself against Russian military aggression, avoiding a bloody military conflict. Read details HERE: Official of Orbán cabinet says they would NOT have defended Hungary in case of a Russian invasion – UPDATED with PM Orbán’s reaction. Schmidt argued that “the 1956 revolution and struggle for freedom cannot be compared with Russia’s aggression against Ukraine,” emphasising Hungary’s identity as a nation of freedom fighters. Meanwhile, Balázs Orbán has since been trying to clarify his remarks, describing the media’s coverage of his original statement as a smear campaign.
The Italians and the Hungarians are two freedom fighter people that never surrender, never give up their freedom and never give up their countries to foreigners, Viktor Orbán said in Pontida, in northern Italy, where he addressed as guest speaker the annual rally held by Matteo Salvini’s League party on Sunday.
Viktor Orbán said that Hungary on October 6 observed a national day of mourning to pay tribute to the heroes of the 1848/49 revolution and war of independence; adding that at that time the Italian and Hungarian people rose up and fought with arms against foreign rule.
“Italians and Hungarians are two freedom fighter people, and we are their heirs. We will never surrender, we will never give up our freedom, and we will never hand over our country to foreigners. We will not hand it over either to Brussels bureaucrats, or to global financial powers or migrants,” Orbán said, and added that Italy belonged to Italians and Hungary to Hungarians.
The prime minister called Matteo Salvini a European patriot, who Orbán said was celebrated as a hero in Hungary because he had closed the borders and defended the homes of Italians and also defended Europe. He said Salvini deserved an honour, not a judicial proceeding for that. Orbán called the proceedings launched against Salvini in connection with illegal migration “a disgrace” for the left and the whole of Europe.
