Foreign minister: Right-wing majority in EP would be ‘hope for security, development’

At a joint press conference, Szijjarto said Brussels “invariably gives the wrong response to the most serious economic and security challenges ever faced by the European Union.”

“The liberal mainstream is trying to rule over everything in Europe and create a kind of European United States through weakening member countries to the extreme … they have launched a brutal attack against the institution of the family and pose an unprecedented danger to the European Union through (allowing) migration,” Szijjarto said. He insisted that “federal endeavours, attacks on the family and enforcing migration all work towards seriously weakening the community and practically destroy our competitiveness”.

Hungary wants a strong EU, but “it will only be possible if member states are also duly strong … but it requires that nation states should preserve their traditions, history, and practice their religion freely”, Szijjarto said.

“Emptied and weak members will result only in a weak European integration,” the minister said, adding that while EU institutions “had been unable to tackle difficult situations, it was the solutions applied by nation states or in intergovernmental cooperation that worked”.

“The community will be strong if it helps members states strengthen, forbears from destroying the competitiveness of national economies, pays respect to the family, and would not seek to overwrite the laws of nature,” he said.

“We need to act quickly because the EU is weakening quickly and Brussels is extending its powers quickly; we must put an end to federalisation, the gender propaganda, and the influx of migration,” Szijjarto said, and called for cooperation between the right-wing conservative and Christian Democratic parties, which “must do well” in next year’s EP election. “That is why we also support the Estonian Conservative People’s Party,” Szijjarto said, and thanked the party for their “support to Hungary’s sovereignty” in recent years.

Answering a question concerning a new textbook for state-run schools in Russia, Szijjarto said “there are some issues over which the government won’t enter into debates”.

“Everybody must respect Hungary’s history … 1956 was one of the most glorious moments of that history, when Hungarians sacrificed their lives for their freedom, for the sovereignty of their country … all Hungarians that stood up for freedom at that time were heroes,” he said. “We will reject any remarks to the contrary,” he added.

On another subject, Szijjarto dismissed allegations that “the government has in fact outsourced the Paks nuclear power plant upgrade” as nonsensical. He said Paks II Zrt, a Hungarian state company, had been contracted to build the two new blocks at the plant, adding that “I exercise the ownership rights”. He also added that only “a few minor administrative changes” had been made to the construction contract.