PM’s political director: Hungarians want to decide for themselves how they should live

“Unfortunately the current progressive liberal elite likes to dictate to the others how to live their life and what to do, what to think about the world order or anything else. So it’s a long battle but we’re still standing,” Orban said when asked whether Prime Minister Viktor Orban was winning the “political war” against the liberal elite in Brussels.

Put to him that there was “deep frustration” with Hungary over how it operates in the European Union, Orban said Hungary had held a “minority opinion” for the last 2 and a half years, adding that he believed Hungary was “on the good side of history”.

He said it had been obvious from the start that Russia had to take responsibility for violating international law by attacking Ukraine, but the important question was how to resolve the conflict.

He said that over the last two and a half years European and Western liberal leaders had been calling for continued support for Ukraine rather than taking diplomatic steps, and they had been saying that there was no need to engage with Russia, but instead keep supporting the war.

“And what happened? More than 500,000 people died, Ukraine lost more territory than they had before, Ukraine as a country, from an economic point of view, collapsed, there is a serious daily risk of escalation,” he said.

“So I don’t see it as a sound and logical strategy on the Western side, and we Hungarians are criticising this strategy from day one,” Orban said, adding that Hungary had an “alternative vision” about this. He said he believed the most important value in Europe was democracy and pluralism where every member state can be heard.

Put to him that Hungary was saying that Ukraine could not win the war but it was blocking financial and military support for the country, Orban said Hungary was providing humanitarian aid and helping its neighbour in terms of its energy supply.

Asked about Hungary refusing to provide military aid to Ukraine, Orban said: “We don’t want to be part of it. … It happens for no reason. I mean why don’t we stop it?” He said portraying those who disagreed with mainstream Western policies as “Putin puppets” meant that intellectually all discussions were immediately “dead”.

Asked about Hungary’s economic decisions, Orban said Hungary wanted to use oil that helps the Hungarian economy and had a right to do so. He said this was a practical matter regardless of where Hungary imported its oil from.

“It’s obvious that we don’t want to give up our sovereignty, we want to decide with whom we cooperate in the field of energy policy,” Orban said.

“The Hungarian position is always based on the Hungarian interests and we don’t care if we are criticised for that,” he said. “We are ready to cooperate with our European partners in all fields where there is an equal basis of law, we have to do our best, but we want to maintain our sovereign foreign policy. And actually I think in this new world order, more and more countries should do the same.”

Asked about Hungary’s migration policy, Orban said: “We will continue to protect the Hungarian people and I personally, and the prime minister and all the right-wing politicians will not let Hungary down through illegal migration as it happened with many Western countries.”