Political director: ‘Time is on the side of pro-peace camp’
He told a roundtable discussion on party politics that the Ukrainian decision to impose limitations on the amount of crude to be delivered through the country by Russian-owned Lukoil was linked to “the peace mission and Hungary’s stance on the war”.
“In just two weeks we managed to make waves causing serious problems in the entire pro-war force field. There is now an alternative strategy, represented by Hungary, and to be tabled at the meeting of European heads of state and government. This is a historic situation, and Hungary has a historic responsibility to do whatever it can for peace,” Orban said.
The majority of Europeans want peace, and European policy must change, he said.
Regarding Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “peace mission”, LMP group leader Mate Kanasz-Nagy said his party was pro-peace. At the same time, he said he had not seen “concrete results” of the peace mission: “I’m not sure it has brought peace closer.”
Laszlo Gyorgy Lukacs of Jobbik – Conservatives said the party had always stood up for “a fair peace”. “If that is the substance of the peace mission, Jobbik will support it.”
Lorinc Nacsa of the junior ruling Christian Democrats (KDNP) slammed Jobbik, saying that Marton Gyongyosi, the party’s leader until two weeks ago, had “voted for 17 pro-war decisions in the European Parliament”.
Orban said peace was conditional on restoring communication channels. “How do they want peace if they refuse to speak with one of the [warring] parties?” The policies of the past 2.5 years “are a dead end”, he said.
He added that the Ukrainian leadership of the western Transcarpathia region of the country would be open to cooperating with Hungary, “but Kyiv is waging war; they want to beat the Russians. Due to its pro-peace stance, Kyiv politicians have identified Hungary as a political opponent,” he said.
On the matter of the “quarantining” of the Patriots for Europe group in the European Parliament, Lukacs said no groups should be quarantined “for their role on a political side or its opinions”. “Lots of people have voted for those forces, and what happened is not right,” he said.
Orban said that, similarly to the boycott of the EU Council meetings during Hungary’s presidency, the step was “revenge — insignificant, petty revenge”. The European People’s Party is now “as much in lockstep with the leftist mainstream as for example the Greens are,” he said. The true “logic of power”, he said, was whether a party belonged to a party family or not. “Up to now central Europe had no party family; now it has one,” he said, adding that that fact alone would boost the region’s ability to represent its interests.
Nacsa said the European Commission should “return to its original role” and to the rule of law. Instead, the Commission “is using so-called legal tools as a political cudgel” and regularly employs double standards against Hungary, he said.
