Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary must stay out of the war in Ukraine. He added that "no Hungarian should come between a Ukrainian anvil and a Russian hammer”, and this was why Hungary refused to send soldiers or weapons into the theater of war. Addressing a March 15 national holiday commemoration in front of Parliament on Tuesday, PM Orbán said Hungary must represent its own interests calmly and courageously. “It isn’t in our interest to become footsoldier victims in someone else’s war,” he said.
“Some countries want to achieve their goals through warfare, but we know that the best war is one that can be avoided,” he added. “Russia will consider Russian interests; Ukraine will consider Ukrainian interests, but the United States and Brussels will not think with a Hungarian head or feel with a Hungarian heart,” he said. PM Orbán noted that hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine, and Hungarian soldiers and police must guarantee Hungary’s southern and eastern borders with arms. Hungary, he added, was now engaged in its largest humanitarian aid programme of all time. “Meanwhile, the energy crisis of western Europe is now knocking on our door.”
“It has taken two years to defeat a global pandemic … and if that’s not enough, now we have the Hungarian left wing to contend with, too. We live in an era of dangers,” PM Orbán said, adding that the threat of war did not reduce what was at stake at the upcoming election but rather the opposite: “it raises it sky-high”.
The prime minister said the right wing would preserve Hungary’s peace and security. PM Orbán said Hungary was helping refugees but continued to reject migration. He said: “Feel with a Christian heart and think with a Hungarian head!” He said Fidesz was going from strength to strength and its chance of winning was “increasing day by day”. “I can hardly remember the last time when our stars were so well aligned 19 days before the election,” he said.
Photo credit: MTI