Starting his regular interview on Kossuth Rádió, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán summed up the Operational Group’s daily report on the coronavirus situation. “According to their calculations, on November 21, we will need 2,240 beds in intensive care units, and on December 10, it could be 4,480,” he said, adding that this would reach the maximum capacity of hospitals. “This means that decisions should be made soon on surgeries that can be delayed, if necessary,” the prime minister said.
The prime minister then turned to current figures showing that seven schools have no ongoing education, while 23 schools have online education and 78 schools are following a mixed-format (online and in-school). PM Orbán said that the government will not shut down schools “for as long as possible,” adding that “the situation is serious, but we can handle it. We prepared for this in the summer, so if we follow the rules now, we will succeed again together.”
Referring to the introduction of the special legal order, Viktor Orbán noted that the debate on whether to tighten the regulation on mask-wearing or not lasted two weeks, after which the opposition did not vote for it. “That doesn’t make sense; I consider Parliament to be unavoidable, but there are times when quick decisions are needed,” he pointed out, adding that “of course, the Parliament will hold its sessions in the coming weeks, too, including during the 90-day period of the special legal order.”
Touching upon the terrorist attack in Vienna, the prime minister said that these assassinations should be regarded as warnings. “I did my best and told everyone I could in Europe that the blinders had to come off. For the future of Europe, migration is not the answer, but the source of the problem,” PM Orbán summarized.
Commenting on the decision in the European Parliament to tie rule of law to funding under the next MFF, the prime minister emphasized, “In my opinion, all politicians who think responsibly in Hungary and Europe should deal with the epidemic; now is not the time for rule of law debates. Now there is trouble; now it is our job to get the necessary resources to the countries that are in very serious trouble as soon as possible. And I am talking here about the countries in the south. Hungary has the resources it needs for the next two years.”
Finally, talking about the U.S. election, Viktor Orbán said “if things happened in Hungary like what is going on in the U.S., the sky would fall.” The PM then concluded his remarks by stating, “One thing we can do is make our views on American-Hungarian relations clear. President Trump is a friend of Hungary, and it is our job to gather friends. Every country is sovereign; this choice [of president] is their business.”