“We started the government meeting on Wednesday evening and will close it at noon today,” Viktor Orbán said at the beginning of his regular weekly interview. Speaking in a local studio in Sopronbánfalva, the Hungarian village hosting the three-day government meeting, the prime minister said that in addition to current affairs, other big issues are also being discussed.
Such matters include energy supply, technological developments in agriculture, defense and demographic trends, and decisions related to family support, he said.
According to PM Orbán, a different future awaits Hungarians if there is a war. He said the West still wants war and that this was confirmed at the NATO summit. There is hardly any talk of peace, so the war will not end in the foreseeable future and sanctions will not be lifted. “Without them, we could return to a normal economic growth path," he said, pointing out that the government has a plan to bring inflation down to single digits by the end of the year, despite the war and sanctions.
On migration, the prime minister said that at a meeting in Brussels this week, the majority decided to introduce a mandatory migrant quota, which would mean the resettlement of tens of thousands of migrants a year in Hungary and would oblige member states to build migrant ghettos.
“At Thursday's cabinet meeting, we reviewed our political and legal options to prevent Brussels from implementing its plan,” the PM said.
On the mandatory quota, PM Orbán said that in the past year, 330,000 illegal migrants had been detained at the EU's borders, including 270,000 at the Hungarian border. He added that we should only rely on our own experience in the field of migration. That is why we must remember our own experiences, including the events of 2015. “We listen to the siren calls in Brussels, but we are not interested. No migration," the prime minister said.
The solution to the migrant crisis is that no one enters the EU except those who have been granted refugee status. If we cannot create the latter, there is no solution. The prime minister said that others are envious of Hungary because it has no migrants. Hungary will not allow its successful border protection system to be destroyed, he added.
PM Orbán said that a government like those in the West would fall in three minutes in Hungary. It is simply unacceptable that Brussels decides to have migrant ghettos, he continued, as “I have sweated blood to close the refugee camps in Hungary, and now we will persevere.”
As long as there is a government in Hungary serving the interests of Hungarians, there will be no migrant ghettos in Hungary, he said.
Regarding the economy, he said that “every year (the EU) publishes what member states should do to change their economies. Brussels has a proposal this year that would lead to the phasing out of the utility price reduction.” He noted that his cabinet had discussed how to prevent this yesterday. Brussels is also discussing a new waste management system, the introduction of which would adversely affect winemakers, the prime minister said, adding that they were now trying to find a solution to this as well.
On the Ukraine front, he said that it was essential to prevent Ukrainian interests from being asserted at the NATO summit because this would risk a world war.
In PM Orbán’s view, there is no doubt that the Ukrainian communication style is unusual. “If you are in trouble and you ask for help, behave appropriately," he said in response to the suggestion that the British defense minister had even criticized the Ukrainian president after the NATO summit for his lack of gratitude. PM Orbán understands that the Ukrainians are in a lot of trouble, but it is important not to accept the Ukrainian point of view because that would drag us into war.
The situation remains extremely dangerous, PM Orbán told listeners. He recalled that hundreds, sometimes thousands of people are dying every day in our neighborhood. We must be vigilant, he said. The prime minister agreed, however, with Ukrainian President Zelensky's statement that the US could end the war in five minutes, saying that if the Americans wanted the war to end, it would end tomorrow.
“At the NATO summit, we did not get an answer as to why the Americans do not want this," PM Orbán added.
Responding to another question, he said that, given current trends, there was a chance that inflation could reach single digits a month and a half before December.
On the left’s campaign financing, he noted that the Hungarian opposition is paid in hard currency, and everyone knows that whoever pays decides which tune will be played. So Brussels can use the Hungarian left at any time they want to impose a migrant quota and a migrant ghetto on Hungary.
If the mayor can be bought, he is not making decisions in the interests of the Hungarian people, he said. They were corrupted because they have been given money for something, he added. This is also a crime under the current laws, but anyone who accepts money from foreign agents is committing a crime and the laws should be amended in this direction.
Orbán clarified that there are gaps in Hungarian legislation regarding the matter, and it should be made clear that foreigners cannot buy domestic influence.