The Germans want to force their Willkommenspolitik onto us, Orbán tells – interview

Countries must quickly purchase as many coronavirus vaccines as possible, regardless of whether they come from the East or the West, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in an interview to German news portal Focus Online on Monday.

Asked about Hungary’s decision to buy Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, Orbán said that in a pandemic, a politician’s job was to take responsibility and protect the health and lives of his country’s citizens. This is why, he said, countries had a duty to procure as many vaccines as possible as quickly as possible. “Because those who buy time win lives and regain their freedom,” he said.

Orbán insisted that there were no “Eastern or Western vaccines”; only good or bad ones. When the Hungarian authorities conclude that a vaccine is safe and effective, they authorise it, he added.

“From that point on, to me, a vaccine that has been granted authorisation is a Hungarian vaccine I can use to save the lives of my compatriots,” Orbán said. The prime minister said it was possible to treat the procurement of vaccines and the tense relations between the European Union and Russia as separate issues. He underscored that human life and the protection of health took precedence over political, including geopolitical considerations.

The prime minister said it was “irresponsible” to politicise the procurement of vaccines “and let people die and restrict their freedom just because one has objections against the country where it was manufactured”.

“Looking at it objectively, it’s clear that the eastern part of Europe developed a vaccination culture during the communist era which led to eastern Europe eradicating the polio virus a lot sooner than western Europe, where the Russian vaccine was not adopted for ideological reasons,” Orbán said. Asked about the European Union’s centralised vaccine procurement programme, Orbán said it had become clear that “this was the wrong decision.” The United States, Britain, Israel and even Serbia “are well ahead of us EU member states”, he said, adding at the same time that it was now “too late” to change course and “complaining is pointless”. “Let the European Commission do what it has to do,” Orbán said. “We won’t get in its way and we’ll support it wherever we can, but out of responsibility for our people, we’ll exercise our national competences.”

Asked why he did not consider Hungary to be bound by the EU decision on vaccine procurement, Orbán said:

“Brussels follows its own logic. It doesn’t take into consideration the importance of the time factor and is too slow to issue approvals and doesn’t appear to be talking to suppliers from a position of strength.”

However, EU regulations do not bar member states from acting on their own, and the Hungarian government has taken advantage of this, he said. Put to him that some believed the EU was also motivated by ideological considerations in its vaccine procurement programme, Orbán said: “I don’t know exactly what’s happening in Brussels or in the minds of the Brussels bureaucrats, but what I do know is that everyone who has died was someone’s father, mother, sibling or child.” Orbán added that this was “a higher dimension” than that of European politics. “The health and freedom of our citizens are an absolute priority,” he said.