Tamás Menczer, the Fidesz communications director, has said the only thing those striving for peace can count is on getting blackmailed.
In a video posted on social media, Menczer said non-EU Ukraine is threatening the energy security of two EU member states, Hungary and Slovakia, notwithstanding the EU association agreement Ukraine is bound by. He added that the European Commission, as the guardian of the treaties, should take action to protect member states and make sure countries such as Ukraine uphold the agreement. Yet Brussels was doing very little about it, and it was even possible that the commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, had suggested the oil blockade, he said. “We’ll use all means at our disposal to defend ourselves,” he said, noting regulatory and legal tools, a consultation procedure or arbitration as possible avenues. Menczer also referred to “technical possibilities”, adding that Hungarian oil and gas company MOL “is obviously investigating these”. “The contracts and agreements that we enter into are something we want to stick to,” he said. At the same time, though Hungary won’t enter into blackmail, he warned that much of the energy that Ukraine receives “passes through Hungary”.