Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said in connection with the upcoming EP elections that “in these extraordinary times the person of elected officials could largely determine if we live in peace in the future or in war”.
Speaking in Komárom, in northern Hungary, on Friday, Minister Szijjártó said that the incumbent leaders of Europe had given “ill-advised responses” to the war in Ukraine. Their measures “complemented with ambiguous remarks” could lead to the conflict “expanding geographically and in time”, he added. In war times “responsible political leaders must be most circumspect not only in their decision making but when they just say something … in a war environment talking about sending troops or mentioning a nuclear war is the greatest possible mistake and the largest irresponsibility,” Szijjártó said. He said the EU’s sanctions against Russia had resulted in unprecedentedly high inflation in Europe. Hungary’s annual energy spending of 7 billion euros had shot up to 17 billion euros, which resulted in “higher prices for all products … that is how we ended up having 27% inflation rather than the usual one or two percent,” he said. “And not because we are stupid or got the economic policy wrong or made three or four bad decisions, but only because of that misguided response of Brussels,” he said.