At the latest NATO summit, PM Orbán observed a dramatic shift: “America is on the path of peace, and we are on the path of war.” He stressed that the European strategy, led by Germany, remains committed to a military victory in Ukraine, even as U.S. support wanes. The prime minister warned that this divergence means Europe will be left alone to face the war’s financial, economic, and security consequences.
He recalled his visit to Kyiv during Hungary’s EU presidency, where he tried to propose a ceasefire. “I told President Zelensky that time is not on his side. The Russians are gaining ground, and Europe is running out of resources.” His message was rejected.
PM Orbán described Ukraine’s leadership as driven by show rather than substance, and the continuation of the war as a strategic dead end. “Ukraine cannot ask from us something that harms us and Europe,” he stated. “This war cannot be won on the front line against a nuclear power.”
He was equally blunt about the cost: “Tens of billions of euros have already been burned without any rational, achievable path to victory.” As such, Hungary vetoed Ukraine’s EU accession, warning that integrating a country at war would pull the entire Union into the conflict. While this halted the process, PM Orbán voiced concern over attempts in Brussels to bypass legal rules. “Open legal violations now prevail,” he said, but in the end, he added, “Hungary cannot be excluded.”
The prime minister also criticized the EU’s political culture, where member states increasingly obey Brussels without public consultation. “There are three major issues in European politics today: migration, war, and gender. Hungary is the only country that asked its citizens about all three,” he emphasized, arguing that this democratic deficit has allowed bureaucratic governance to overtake national interest.
PM Orbán connected this trend to Hungary’s opposition, describing it as foreign-directed. “They receive money and instructions from Brussels,” he claimed, warning that new political movements, especially those formed online, operate without accountability. These are not traditional parties, he said, but digital constructs built around commands and narratives, while political credibility must rest on human substance.
Furthermore, Prime Minister Orbán declared, “a party cannot be built on sin,” referring to opposition leader Péter Magyar secretly recording his wife. “You cannot build on betrayal or treachery. Or if you do, it will fall apart.”